Debate contribution: Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme (Closure) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2026
Debate contribution by Dr Caoimhe Archibald on .
- MLA
- Dr Caoimhe Archibald
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 7 September 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Executive Committee Business
- Heading
- Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme (Closure) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2026
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5670342
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Go raibh maith agat.
I thank all Members who contributed to the debate and all members of the Committee. As I said in my opening remarks, I very much appreciate the engagement of the Committee on this matter. I have no doubt that the Committee will continue to have an interest, and I will welcome its continued engagement. I appreciate the positive comments about Catriona and her team, which I, of course, echo. Ofgem was also impressed by Catriona's engagement with the Committee and agreed to continue administering the scheme until the end of August. The process of completing the residual handover and closure activities is ongoing. As for next steps, David Honeyford mentioned what we should do with the leftover AME that is not being used for the RHI scheme. We have agreement in principle from the Treasury to use that AME to develop a support scheme for biomethane that is going towards decarbonisation objectives. Further policy development, a business case and all the approvals that need to be gone through have to happen. We are actively working on that policy development and hope that it will be completed in this financial year, so that we will be in a position to agree the business case in the next financial year. It is worth saying that we are making good progress when it comes to renewables. By the end of June 2026, we were up to 53% of electricity being from renewable sources, which puts us back on the trajectory that we want to be on. The Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme (Closure) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2026 will bring to an end the non-domestic RHI scheme in a way that delivers fairness to taxpayers and participants alike. I commend the motion to the House.
294 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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