Conor Murphy fails to explain a rash approach to a protection equipment order that never was

It was a hopeful moment that got major publicity, as such a story would at this anxious time.

It was even interpreted by some observers in Northern Ireland as yet another sign that the Republic of Ireland was responding better to Covid-19 than the UK.

Michelle O’Neill of Sinn Fein, which during this crisis has criticised every aspect of the UK response and tried to mimic every aspect of the Republic’s response, boasted that Conor Murphy had arranged a joint order £170m with Dublin for Public Protection Equipment (PPE). Like other generous gestures, claims or expenditures that have had little scrutiny at this time, there was no criticism of it, despite the cost.

Yet before the first shipment had even landed in Dublin, supplies of Chinese tests and PPE had been sent back from across Europe, including the UK, for being defective.

Whether or not, in light of these problems, the Republic made checks on the quality of their own order is a matter for them. In the end, much of their PPE too was not up to scratch.

As it happened, the joint order with Dublin had not been possible so did not exist, but Sinn Fein seemed prepared to rush into it. Conor Murphy simply admitted to Jim Allister MLA, at Stormont’s finance committee yesterday, that he was about to send money to Dublin before he “saw a single apron, or mask, or anything”. Rather than explain or justify such a rash approach, he blamed others for briefing against him.

Sinn Fein, which has behaved opportunistically since it did a u-turn on the agreed executive position on school closures, was so self righteous about the RHI scandal that it brought down Stormont over it. Yet without due diligence its finance minister was willing to commit huge sums of money to an order that might have made the party look good, made joint Irish actions look good but made the UK look negligent.

Since the scale of this fiasco emerged, five million PPE items from the NHS have arrived – an excellent development.