Coronavirus: ‘We are keeping London in the loop’ insists NI ministry amid claims of a solo run to buy PPE gear

It was reacting to a story broken by the Nolan Show today, that a £170m deal for PPE is now in the pipeline for Northern Ireland – but that it could be coming direct from China not via a UK-wide deal.

It comes after over five million pieces of PPE (such as masks and aprons) were shipped into the Province from Liverpool last week as part of an arrangement with the London government.

It also comes a week after a joint north-south Irish deal for PPE –which had been touted by Sinn Fein finance minister Conor Murphy – flopped spectacularly, resulting in nothing being sent to Northern Ireland.

The Nolan Show referred to documentation which it said its journalists had obtained about the new deal – which the BBC said could happen on Tuesday, April 14, and would involve scores of millions of items of PPE.

In the documentation, dated Monday March 6, the BBC quoted a civil servant as saying the prospective China order would “always have been a high-risk strategy”, as it was testing a new route.

They also said it reflected “a very negative outlook on supply from other routes” – including from Great Britain.

The official is also quoted as saying 35% of a recent order the Republic received from China turned out to be useless.

TUV leader Jim Allister told the News Letter: “We have to get as much as we need, that’s for sure. But we have to get that which is reliable. You just don’t buy, buy, buy for the sake of having got something if it’s not suitable.

“I think there are genuine, real concerns as to why we put so much effort and money into those sources, when it seems we have a reliable four-nations source.”

The Department of Health said: “The Department has ensured that the Department of Health and Social Care in London is apprised of the proposed supply route. These communications are ongoing.

“Prospective PPE supply routes from China for Northern Ireland have not been finalised. It would be a matter of great regret if any potential arrangements were jeopardised by partial and malicious leaking.”

The department was asked how the Nolan Show’s story could “jeopardise” any such purchase, but it did not respond by time of writing.

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