SF minister won't face grilling at Covid Inquiry - UUP's Aiken calls the situation 'unbelievable'

However, although that evidence session will not now happen, the Inquiry has left open the possibility of Mr Murphy being called in the future.

Former first minister Arlene Foster told the News Letter “It is off course a matter for the Inquiry who they take evidence from, but as former First Minister I would have been interested to hear his evidence on amongst other things, the non existent PPE order via Dublin and his attendance at the Bobby Storey Funeral.”

Ulster Unionist MLA Steve Aiken said it is “unbelievable” that the inquiry has decided to accept a written statement instead of a full cross-examination.

Mr Murphy cited the fact that he would be appearing before the inquiry as a reason why he could not answer pre-election questions about the Bobby Storey IRA funeral.He did this, for example, on BBC Radio Ulster’s Talkback programme, where he was standing in for his leader Michelle O'Neill, who ducked three of the four key broadcast debates or interviews.This meant that on Talkback and other key broadcasts the party entirely evaded scrutiny over the Storey covid rule breach scandal.

Mr Murphy returned to office as economy minister at the end of May, after briefly stepping down from the role due to a short period of illness.

On its visit to Belfast, current and former Stormont ministers were grilled by the inquiry on pandemic preparedness and how well Northern Ireland’s government responded to the crisis.

His party leader in Northern Ireland Michelle O’Neill faced rigorous questioning on her attendance at the Bobby Storey funeral in defiance of the guidance issued by the Executive she jointly led with Arlene Foster.

Mr Murphy was one of a number of senior Sinn Fein figures – which included government ministers – to attend the funeral. He has supplied a written statement to the Inquiry.

A spokesperson for the UK Covid Inquiry said Mr Murphy had provided a detailed witness statement, adding: “The Chair has therefore decided that it is not necessary to call Mr Murphy to a separate hearing to hear his oral evidence, though he might be called to give evidence in the future”.

Ulster Unionist Finance spokesperson Steve Aiken MLA challenged the decision of the Covid inquiry not to call Mr Murphy – and suggested that the Sinn Fein minister should be called to the inquiry’s module on the procurement of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) during the pandemic.

In March 2020 the then-finance minister Conor Murphy said a “significant” consignment of PPE had been ordered from China for frontline workers in a joint order between Stormont and the Irish government, but the Republic's Department of Health later said no joint order was placed. The vast majority of PPE was secured through centralised UK efforts.

Mr Aiken said: “In light of the many unanswered questions relating to Mr. Murphy’s actions during the Covid crisis, it is unbelievable that the inquiry has decided to accept a written statement.

“Rather than seek clarification of the events around his claim to have procured PPE equipment in partnership with the Republic of Ireland Government at the height of the pandemic, the inquiry seems happy to allow Mr. Murphy’s role, as a key member of the Executive during the crisis, to pass without detailed examination.

“I would seek clarification from the inquiry chair on the following;

“If all communications regarding Mr. Murphy’s role in attempting to secure PPE have been supplied, both from Mr. Murphy and from the department?

“Whether the inquiry is content that communications relating to this issue, between Mr. Murphy, his department, the Government of the Republic of Ireland and any other participant in relation to the procurement of PPE, have been supplied in full?

“I find it beyond belief that all parties who have sought clarification through their ability to question witnesses during the inquiry to date are happy to accept the decision not to bring Mr. Murphy before them.

“I would hope that, if there is no appetite to review this decision, Mr Murphy will be requested to attend during the specific module of the inquiry on PPE.”

The News Letter has asked the Department of Finance if it is confident that all of the information mentioned by Mr Aiken has been provided to the inquiry. We have also asked Sinn Fein if the same has happened from Conor Murphy’s perspective – and whether he is happy to appear before the inquiry's PPE module.

A Department of Finance spokesperson said: “The Department has and will continue to engage fully with the COVID inquiry as they progress the respective modules.”

THE ‘HISTORIC’ PPE ORDER THAT NEVER MATERIALISED

In the early days of the pandemic political tensions were high over whether Stormont should follow the rest of the UK or the Republic of Ireland in its response to Covid.

The atmosphere was febrile at points, with the Sinn Fein MLA John O’Dowd at one stage encouraging the public to “get angry” about the UK approach.

The Upper Bann MLA posted on twitter: “Let's be clear, this shire of b******* are using everyone of us in some form of twisted medical experiment. Do you honestly believe the rest of Europe is wrong & this balloon and his ilk are right. If you are not angry it's time to get angry, we are on the brink of disaster!”

The then deputy first minister Michelle O’Neill accused the UUP health minister and his officials of “slavishly following the Boris Johnson model” and being “too slow”.

In the midst of this atmosphere, unionist and nationalist parties were trying to spin the positives from their respective nations.

Behind the scenes, there was anger from some unionists about the level of coverage given by the BBC News NI website to one particular PPE order. For most of the last weekend of March 2020, the publicly funded website had led with, or prominently featured, a story about some PPE on its way from China to Dublin.

The headline read “Historic Ireland-China PPE flights lands in Dublin”. The report even gave us the name of the plane. Unionist politicians felt it was utterly disproportionate, given that the vast majority of PPE was secured through the UK NHS.

The report said some of the PPE from these flights “is believed to be destined for Northern Ireland”. But it never arrived.

Days later, the Nolan Show reported that senior government sources had told the programme that “no such agreement exists” and no PPE equipment would arrive in Northern Ireland from the order.

The news broke as RCN boss Pat Cullen, now a Sinn Fein MP, was on the programme. A shocked and almost speechless Ms Cullen said the RCN would have a position – if it was confirmed by Mr Murphy.

The finance minister later said that the plan failed when “major economic powers entered the global race for PPE”.