News | Heating scheme flawed from inception

Sinn Féin MLA, Conor Murphy said today that the non-domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme was flawed from its inception and what happened in terms of the waste of public money was an unacceptable dereliction of responsibility.

Speaking today the chair of the Economy Committee Mr Murphy said:

“The Renewable Heat Incentive scheme, which will cost the public purse over £400m has been flawed from the outset.

“There are huge implications for the civil service and our block grant. Very senior officials had responsibility over the establishment, the monitoring and the implementation of RHI.

“It beggars belief internal reporting systems were so flawed that key issues were not identified and addressed within the department despite warnings having being raised about the scheme.

“There are also real concerns that there may well have been aggressive exploitation of this scheme for commercial profit and gain.

“The public, the Assembly and the Executive all need to know what happened here.

“A vast amount of taxpayers’ money will be lost, which should be available to the Executive for front line public services at a time of increasing British Tory cuts.

“Given my ministerial experience I do believe that Arlene Foster, who was the Enterprise, Trade and Investment Minister at the time, should come forward to provide a full account and set the public record straight on this issue.”

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