Debate contribution: RHI (Closure of Non-Domestic Scheme) Bill: Final Stage
Debate contribution by Dr Caoimhe Archibald on .
- MLA
- Dr Caoimhe Archibald
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 12 May 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Executive Committee Business
- Heading
- RHI (Closure of Non-Domestic Scheme) Bill: Final Stage
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5528300
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I thank all those who have contributed to today's debate. Again, I put on record my appreciation of the Committee and everyone who has worked constructively to get us to this stage. I will briefly respond to some of the points that were made by Members in the debate. I give assurances about the AME that will now not be used for RHI payments. The closure is now in place and we have certainty about the payments, which means that we are able to utilise that money for other purposes. However, the words that have been used on numerous occasions in recent weeks about the NIRO electricity discount also apply to the comparable scheme. We have been working with Treasury officials over the past number of months on what that might look like, and on how we might utilise the funding that remains and put it to good use for those purposes. We will keep the Committee updated as that develops and we move beyond the closure stage today to bringing forward the regulations. I agree with Members: although we need to learn the lessons of the past, that cannot get in the way of our having ambitious energy policy for the future. We need to ensure that we have secure, affordable and sustainable energy, which is what the Department, including officials in energy branch, is now focused on. It is important that we balance risk, and recognising risk, with appropriate levels of governance and transparency as we move forward.
We need to see investment in our grid infrastructure and incentives for renewable investment here, and the work that is being done now on energy across different policy areas in the Department will bring us to that position.
My objective throughout has been to get the balance right between fairness to scheme participants and fairness to taxpayers, and I think that that has been achieved in the regulations, which the Committee has helpfully shaped with us by bringing to them a level of scrutiny that allowed us to get to the right place. As I said, that scrutiny involved speaking to participants, who have knowledge of how the scheme operates. We have therefore got to a good place today, and I am glad that there is now consensus across the Chamber on the issue. I again thank Members for that. I commend the Bill to the Assembly.
397 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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