Whistleblower ‘demonised’ over cash-for-ash scandal
A FORMER DUP minister who broke ranks to accuse party figures of wrongdoing over Stormont’s botched green energy scheme has been demonised for telling the truth, his lawyer has claimed.
Jonathan Bell’s decision to go public with explosive claims against party leader Arlene Foster and a number of DUP ministerial advisers has come at “enormous personal and professional expense”, the inquiry into the Renewal Heat Incentive (RHI) was told.
Giving a closing submission to the inquiry, Mr Bell’s lawyer Ronan Lavery insisted the former energy minister never had a vested interest in the ill-fated initiative, and instead had only been guided by the public interest.
On the penultimate day of hearings at Stormont, Mr Lavery said if Mr Bell had not spoken out, the RHI the inquiry might never have happened.
“He has been the subject of personal attacks and smears and they have sought really to discredit him personally, rather than anybody in any way effectively undermining the truth of what he is saying,” he said.
“He has been accused of violence, drunkenness, incompetence and even, and this is from the press office, a ‘monster that had to be put to sleep’. And Arlene Foster in the course of her evidence suggested that he might even be responsible for the collapse of government in Northern Ireland.”
The inquiry is examining the fatal flaws in the development and operation of a scheme that landed Stormont with an overspend bill once projected at almost
£500 million.
The RHI was supposed to incentivise farmers and other business owners to switch to wood pellet burning boilers by offering them a subsidy to purchase the fuel.
Catastrophic errors meant subsidy levels were set higher than it actually cost to buy the pellets, so applicants were effectively able to make a profit on public money by burning boilers without limits.
Mr Bell was the energy minister at Stormont in the final months of the scheme and was in charge in the period when cost controls were finally introduced and, later, when it was ultimately closed down to new applicants.