Taxpayer bills for providing the PPE the HSE has needed this year have topped €1 billion.
The massive spend on getting in all the disposable masks and other throwaway protective items was hitting €5 million a day as the country grappled to get a grip on Covid-19.
The sheer volume of PPE needed for our medics meant that planes and boats were constantly on the go importing the vital supplies.
Ironically, China, where the Covid-19 virus first emerged, was a big winner when it came to profiting from the PPE boom, with a lot of the big bills being paid to Chinese companies.
The biggest recipient was a company called China Resources Pharmaceutical, which sold at least €256,606,780 worth of PPE to our health authorities this year.
Aer Lingus was the major air freight provider, collecting more than €32,282,303 for its vital transport services.
The Irish Mirror has received the official spending figures from the HSE through a number of Freedom of Information requests.
The latest available information from the health authorities reveal that the running total was €998,996,572 up to the end of October.
A Department of Health source told the Mirror that this has “easily topped €1 billion by now, but that money has to be spent.”
A spokeswoman for the HSE explained why so much has had to be spent on PPE this year, and why so much has had to be sourced from overseas.
She said: “The Covid-19 global pandemic continues to be an urgent and unprecedented crisis. “The challenge Ireland has faced in sourcing PPE and critical medical equipment has been unprecedented in what has been an exceptionally competitive and highly volatile global market.
“It is critical to understand the sourcing landscape in which the HSE were required to operate in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The characteristics and landscape of the market included:
Unprecedented volatility - WHO reported demand for PPE and critical medical equipment to be 100 times normal demand and prices up to 20 times higher than normal
China in lockdown – China introduced significant restrictions which included closure of manufacturing plants. Where manufacturing and supply capacity was identified there were limited shipping channels available due to port and airport closures.
Many countries introduced export bans and restrictions. In mid-March, a total of 226 countries were identified that had export bans, export restrictions or state requisitioning arrangements in place
Traditional sourcing channels were non-existent – the typical supply base with whom the HSE operated was not in a position to source and secure the volumes of PPE and critical medical equipment required."
