Debate contribution: RHI (Closure of Non-Domestic Scheme) Bill: Final Stage
Debate contribution by Mr Declan Kearney on .
- MLA
- Mr Declan Kearney
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 12 May 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Executive Committee Business
- Heading
- RHI (Closure of Non-Domestic Scheme) Bill: Final Stage
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5528298
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Some 10 years after the spectacular DUP mismanagement of and arrogance about the RHI scheme, which led directly to the collapse of these political institutions, that scheme is finally set to close. The RHI scheme should have been a positive and constructive green energy initiative that contributed to decarbonisation and our overall renewable energy strategy. Instead, it descended into financial scandal. The gross mismanagement that was presided over by former DUP leader Arlene Foster, who was then a DUP Minister, brought the entire scheme into abject disrepute. It took a public inquiry, which cost the taxpayer £13 million, to confirm that the problems with the administration of the scheme were already apparent by 2015. However, despite warnings from numerous whistle-blowers, RHI was allowed to run on, costing £500 million of taxpayers' money. It created a black hole in our regional economy, which overlapped with the onset of Tory austerity here. That DUP-induced financial scandal provoked systemic political instability in our political institutions from which we have arguably never recovered. At the same time, marriage equality rights, women's reproductive rights and Irish language rights were being blocked by the DUP. The Brexit catastrophe quickly followed. Today, the DUP is still content to take a wrecking ball to our political institutions in order to slow down change and combat intra-unionist electoral rivalry. Its cash-for-ash scheme is a monument to arrogance in government. Multiple well-meaning businesses and households have been hurt by that travesty. The current Minister for the Economy has allocated £196 million for compensation and closure payments over the next 10 years to assist those who participated in the RHI scheme in good faith. Ultimately, the DUP's RHI debacle is set to cost the taxpayer approximately £1 billion. Just weeks ago in the Assembly, during a debate on a Bill that was brought forward by my colleague Danny Baker, we listened to the Education Minister and his party colleagues lecture us all on fiscal responsibility as we discussed feeding hungry children. Against the backdrop of RHI, the hypocrisy of DUP posturing when it comes to helping the most needy and vulnerable in our society is lost on no one — even, I would hazard, those in its electoral base.
368 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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