Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
‘Arlene steamed on with RHI despite a warning to delay’
Inquiry told Foster refused to wait on GB’S results
OFFICIALS pushed ahead with the RHI scheme against expert advice as then minister Arlene Foster wanted it launched without delay, an inquiry heard.
It encouraged firms to switch from fossil fuels to woodchip but a lack of cost controls meant it could have an overspend of £700million over 20 years.
Counsel for the inquiry David Scoffield referred to a minute of a teleconference between officials in the Department of Trade and Investment and regulator Ofgem.
He said Ofgem, in its statement to the inquiry, said it warned officials to wait until cost controls had been introduced into the scheme in Britain, so they could be replicated in the Northern Ireland version.
The call took place in June 2012, as Northern Ireland’s regulations were being drafted. During the call, DETI officials told Ofgem their minister wanted to get on with the introduction.
Mr Scoffield said: “Ofgem’s evidence is the department recorded the minister’s wish to proceed without having reviewed the GB scheme amendments.”
That scheme had been running for about seven months at that time.
Officials were bringing in a temporary suspension mechanism and considering measures to vary tariffs to avoid budgetary pressure.
The minute records DETI officials telling Ofgem that they planned to update the Northern
Ireland regulations in 2013 and would incorporate the GB cost controls then.
The scheme here was launched in 2012 but the review never happened.
Mr Scoffield said one of the Ofgem lawyers later felt it was important to have a record that it had “hammered home” to officials “that we had significant concerns regarding the course they are preparing to adopt”.
Another had said it was “important to capture Ofgem’s clear recommendation was to wait until the regulations are amended due the risk the current ones pose”.
Mr Scoffield said it would have to be established whether the minutes were “an accurate record of what precisely had been discussed”.