RHI INQUIRY HEARS FRESH REVELATIONS
Former DUP special adviser says that he was trying to win ‘brownie points’ Cairns denies having any cynical motives
I CHANGED DOCUMENT TO WIN ‘BROWNIE POINTS’ FROM FOSTER, SAYS EX-SPAD
CLAIMS ADVISERS REMOVED REFERENCES TO PARTY LEADER TO ‘CLEANSE THE RECORD’
A FORMER DUP special adviser has claimed he changed an RHI document to win “brownie points” from Arlene Foster.
Timothy Cairns told the RHI Inquiry that his party attempted to defend its leader as much as possible and that led him to alter the submission.
Former Department of Trade, Enterprise and Investment (Deti) minister Jonathan Bell has claimed that DUP advisers removed references to Mrs Foster in an attempt to “cleanse the record”.
Mr Cairns said he changed the document of his own volition and denied that his action was part of a strategy to form a narrative that lay the entire blame for the cash-for-ash scandal on Mr Bell.
The former Deti ‘Spad’ said his position wasn’t secure at the time. The document at the centre of the controversy was a submission about the decision to close RHI in February 2015. Mr Cairns said he told other DUP spads of his action and nobody raised any objections.
Mr Cairns yesterday admitted that cost controls being added to RHI later than civil servants wanted was due to the involvement of DUP special advisers. But he insisted that no pressure was put on the Stormont officials and they easily could have said no.
Mr Cairns was questioned by the inquiry about who exactly he believed he was working for when he was a Deti Spad. Panellist Dame Una O’Brien suggested advisers would usually show loyalty to their minister and work for their department as a whole.
However, he appeared to be effectively working for “a fourth group ... the party”. Mr Cairns said that the manner in which the DUP appointed its Spads gave them a strong sense of party affinity. The former Deti Spad admitted that it was “DUP policy” to delay RHI cost controls to the latest possible date.
The inquiry heard how Mr Cairns’ account of this delay was at odds with that of another DUP spad, Dr Andrew Crawford, who is due to give evidence today.
Mr Cairns alleged that Dr Crawford told him to seek the latest possible date for the introduction of cost controls. But Dr Crawford had claimed that it was Mr Cairns alone who made that decision.
Inquiry chair, Sir Patrick Coghlin, pointed to the “irreconcilable difference” in their evidence. He said: “One of you is accurate or telling the truth about that — not both.”
Sir Patrick said he was trying to assess the credibility of their statements, adding: “Both of those cannot be true.” Mr Cairns acknowledged their accounts differed, but stated: “I suppose our memories are different.”
Those involved in designing RHI made the fatal mistake of believing that the Treasury would pick up the bill for any overspend.
Mr Cairns said he believed the RHI bill was being covered by London and it was a “valid” step to delay change beyond the October 1 date favoured by civil servants.
“It’s better to be spent in Belfast than Bristol,” he said. Concerns centred on how long it took to close RHI after civil servants became aware of the flaws. Mr Cairns disclosed details of exchanges between party advisers around the closure of the scheme.
On July 20, 2015, he received an email from Dr Crawford, who warned him that cuts to subsidies were expected to come in October and “you are going to get a massive spike of applications before this date”. Mr Cairns said he passed the information on to a civil servant. Sir Patrick said Dr Crawford instructed Mr Cairns to call him to discuss the RHI scheme. Mr Cairns expressed regret that there was no written record.
“With hindsight it is abundantly clear to me that we really should have just sat round the table, got everybody interested around the table, and got this thrashed out,” he said.
“I was relying on phone calls and this shuttle diplomacy that really was deficient. You have to be able to say that you did your best or, electorally, that is going to be a problem.”
The inquiry heard that Dr Crawford wanted a change to the RHI scheme. Deti officials wanted to introduce a threshold of 1,314 hours of heating, but he hoped to more than double that to 3,000 hours.
Officials rejected the proposal because it didn’t represent value for money, but Mr Cairns denied it was an attempt by Dr Crawford to “run the clock down”. In fur-
ther questioning by the inquiry, Mr Cairns was asked if there were cynical motives for seeking a later date on introducing cost controls.
“There is no evidence those were my motives,” he said. “They may be other people’s motives but they certainly weren’t mine.
“I don’t have any other reason or any other experience. I don’t have any connection within the industry or within the farming community to have those other reasons or potential reasons.”
Mr Cairns was questioned about a conference telephone call he had with DUP Spads Richard Bullick and Timothy Johnston and Mrs Foster on the day after Mr Bell’s explosive interview with the BBC’s Stephen Nolan.
He claimed that Mr Johnston “shut the conversation down” when he spoke of his involvement in RHI. Later that evening, he spoke to Mr Bullick on the phone and they discussed the “awkward” moment. It had been the first time “Timothy’s name had been raised” in connection with RHI.
Mr Johnston had been “fairly adamant he’d had absolutely nothing to do with the scheme”.
Mr Cairns admitted he had been reluctant to speak about Mr Johnston’s role after that.
In his evidence to the inquiry, Deti permanent secretary, Dr Andrew McCormick, had said he believed the DUP was intent on protecting Mr Johnston and deflecting any reference to him.