MPs to examine fallout from RHI court ruling in Northern Ireland
The Northern Ireland Affairs Committee is set to examine the fallout from Northern Ireland’s Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme, nine months on from the Court of Appeal’s ruling on changes to the payment scheme.
Meeting details
The scheme was originally intended to drive installations of low-carbon boilers, but mistakes in its management opened a gaping hole in Northern Ireland’s public finances.
The Northern Ireland Department for the Economy’s most senior official will appear before the Committee to answer questions from MPs which are likely to concern:
- the ruling’s impact on business and the economy
- public confidence in such schemes
- introducing cost controls as a necessary condition for future policies.
On a separate panel, MPs will hear from groups representing those who invested in biomass boilers when subsidies were more generous. The Renewable Heat Association NI, who brought forward the legal challenge on the issue, will be among those giving evidence.
Next week’s session comes after the Court of Appeal’s ruling earlier this year which stated that the changes were lawful and that the scheme was not intended to ‘subsidise or prop up businesses.’
The 2019 law change significantly reduced the subsidies benefitting individuals and businesses with the renewable fuel boilers under RHI, also known as the ‘cash for ash’ scheme.