‘Next to nil’

THE director of a heating company has told the Renewable Heat Incentive inquiry his company has sold “next to nil” boilers in Northern Ireland since lucrative tariffs were slashed in the wake of the scandal.

Connel McMullan from the Banbridge-based company Alternative Heat said he initially believed officials from the Department of Enterprise (Deti) had properly mapped out the cost controls.

Alternative Heat had supplied 610 biomass boilers in Northern Ireland between 2013 and 2016, with sales doubling to 386 in the year before cuts to subsidies were introduced.

Since then, he said it was of little surprise that his company had supplied “next to nil” boilers in Northern Ireland.

He added that he would “without a doubt” trade that highly profitable year for a continuing RHI that offered lower subsidies.

When the RHI started in 2012, Mr McMullan said he believed the high reward offered was to encourage as many to join up as possible, but felt sure that Deti would later cut the subsidies.

Having already worked on the RHI in Great Britain, he assumed officials in Northern Ireland had a “structured approach to a scheme that was thought out”.

He said customers considering the RHI expected a high payback, meaning they could have balanced their books in five years or less.

“With the renewable industry, unless the payback is as lucrative as possible it can be a hard alternative to sell,” he said.

Mr McMullan said the RHI was “much stronger than it needed to be” for the market.

During his evidence, the inquiry heard how Mr McMullan’s company had kept in regular