RHI Scheme: 'Sticking Plaster Approach Is Not Good Enough'

NI's Economy Minister Simon Hamilton has been accused of taking a "sticking plaster approach" over the botched Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme.

Sinn Féin Finance Minister Máirtín Ó Muilleoir said he was disappointed at the failure of Minister Hamilton to present a plan.

An investigation by Spotlight revealed several errors in the scheme, which are set to cost the public purse over £400million.

Minister Ó Muilleoir said: "The scandal of RHI scheme came about through DUP economy ministers.

"It was signed off by previous DUP finance ministers without cost controls. The scandal continued under successive DUP ministers.

"From what I heard, there is no basis for the recall of the Assembly of the Executive.

"Unlike previous Finance Ministers who dealt with this scheme I will work to safeguard the public purse.

"We need to see detailed proposals and ensure they are financially and legally sound, timely, at a zero cost, and protect against future abuse."

Meanwhile, Alliance Leader Naomi Long has questioned whether the DUP "are being utterly foolish or merely treating the public as such" after supposed clear the air talks between the two Ministers failed to produce any substantive plan around the RHI scandal.

She said: "This whole episode has descended from a fiasco into an utter farce. We have two parties in Government disputing whether any substantive plan actually exists and, more importantly, in doing so admitting the necessary robust legal checks which would be required to be undertaken on any such plan have not been done.

"Had any plan been developed in conjunction with and assessed by the Departmental Solicitors Office, surely the Finance Minister would have been aware, given they reside within his own Department?

"Having made an utter mess of the original scheme by deviating from the Treasury model, the DUP now appear to want to alter the terms and conditions of the contracts which their scheme designed, leading directly to this debacle, and which were assured by a Ministerial letter from Arlene Foster to potential lenders, without even consulting the Executive's own legal team or their partners in Government."

(CD)