When starting to pay for £170m of PPE, Stormont minister was told that it wasn’t coming

The revelation came at a meeting of the Assembly’s Finance Committee this afternoon where Mr Murphy faced sustained questioning about Sinn Féin’s claim that there was a “signed a contract” when that was not the case.

A week and a half ago, on 27 March, Mr Murphy announced that he had made a “joint order” with the Irish government for a “significant” volume of personal protective equipment (PPE) which he said “should satisfy our supply demands”.

Five days earlier, in response to question about the lack of PPE for medical staff, deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill had told the Assembly that the Finance Department had that morning “signed a contract that will see additional PPE brought in”.

However, last Friday – a week after Mr Murphy’s announcement – the Nolan Show revealed that in fact there was no order, with the Irish government stating that it had “not proved possible to place a joint order”.

Yesterday Mr Murphy told MLAs that his department had offered to help the Department of Health and had secured approval from the Cabinet Office in Whitehall before attempting to procure the items – which were ultimately coming from China – via Dublin.

He said that Ms O’Neill’s claim that an order had been placed “was in fact correct – we had in fact placed an order; at no stage had I said anything about signing contracts. I said we had placed an order.”

When asked about comments from Justice Minsiter Naomi Long and Ms O’Neill about the supposed order, he said: “I can’t account for the interetation of what I say by other people...”

Putting it to Mr Murphy that Ms O’Neill had erroneously told the Assembly that a contract had been signed, committee chairman Steve Aiken asked: “Who is right – the deputy First Minister or you?”

Mr Murphy said: “Well, you would have to ask the deputy First Minister how she chose to interpret that. I was very clear; we had placed an order. You suggest that in your view of how business is done if you place an order you have signed a contract. So perhaps the deputy First Minister had the same understanding of placing an order as you do.”

Mr Murphy said that Northern Ireland had been “piggybacking” on the Irish Government and had made an agreement about how much would be paid.

He said that his department was “in the process...of transferring that money when we became aware that there was a question mark over the supply lines that they had established”.

Drawing attention to the fact that Mr Murphy was always publicly vague about what had been ordered, TUV leader Jim Allister highlighted that significant quantities of the PPE coming out of China has been found to be unfit for use.

He asked Mr Murphy: “You were going to write a cheque for £170m for goods you hadn’t seen?”

Mr Murphy replied: “Well, I think that anybody who places an order like that from China is basing it on the fact that there are people on the ground to try to establish the quality of it, the quantity of it and...we were operating on the back of an established supply line.”

Mr Allister asked: “So before you saw a single apron, or mask, or anything, you were ready, about to send the money to Dublin. That’s correct, is it?”

Mr Murphy said: “Yes.”

He said it was “a matter of regret” that someone from inside government had briefed the media, revealing that the order had fallen through, because there was a “proper place for everyone to receive that”, which was via the Executive.

Mr Aiken concluded by saying that, having heard the evidence, he was “content” and had “no doubt that you were doing your best and were trying to do your best in particularly trying circumstances”.

Bad news came hours before O’Neill attack on Swann

The timeline set out by Conor Murphy yesterday reveals that Sinn Féin was told that its minister’s supposed order had collapsed just hours before deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill used a high profile TV interview to attack Health Minister Robin Swann.

Last Thursday evening Ms O’Neill created a political storm when she dispensed with collective government responsibility and told Mark Carruthers on The View that Mr Swann had been “too slow” and was “slavishly” following a flawed Westminster strategy.

The led to a predictable backlash from the UUP and the DUP and dominated the headlines.

However, yesterday Mr Murphy revealed that just hours before Ms O’Neill did that interview his department – which for several days had been receiving reports that the PPE for which Ms O’Neill had wrongly claimed there was a signed contract may not arrive – was told that the items were definitely not coming.

Mr Murphy said that on Thursday he had “received confirmation that the order would not be fulfilled through that route”.

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