‘Cash for ash’ companies can be named in Stormont, judge rules

Companies on the botched renewable heat incentive (RHI) scheme can be publicly named by a Stormont Department, a High Court judge in Belfast ruled Wednesday.

Mr Justice Deeny held there was an overriding public interest in Minister for the Economy Simon Hamilton releasing the details of corporate bodies signed up to a green energy initiative, set to cost the taxpayer up to £490 million (€571 million). But he banned Mr Hamilton from disclosing the names of individuals claiming under the scheme until any objections they had to being identified were properly considered.

It was also revealed that one company with seven boilers has received more than £300,000 since July 2015. The verdict was delivered on the eve of Assembly elections called after the RHI scandal led to the collapse of the powersharing institutions.

The judge confirmed that Mr Hamilton is now legally entitled to reveal the names of corporate recipients before he goes out of office. More than 500 RHI nondomestic operators took legal action in a bid to stop disclosure of their details.

Members of the Renewable Heat Association of Northern Ireland claimed the move breached privacy and data protection laws. Disclosure would also create a media “feeding frenzy” and lead to a “witch hunt” of individuals who had done nothing wrong, they argued.

Unilateral step

However, Mr Justice Deeny found that the Minister was not bound by any legal contract and could take the unilateral step of releasing details. He also decided publication was justified under the stated aims of ensuring transparency about all beneficiaries.

“It seems clear that the economic wellbeing of the country is being damaged by excessive payments well beyond that contemplated by the European Union being made because of the way the scheme was operated in Northern Ireland,” he said.

The judge stressed that the planned disclosure was about recipients of grant aid. Backing freedom of expression over privacy rights, he said: “It is not that one suffers from a disease, or one’s marriage is in difficulties, or one is carrying on an illicit relationship of a sexual kind. It is not disclosure of some piece of criminal folly from one’s youth.”

The RHI initiative was set up to encourage businesses to move from using fossil fuels to renewable heating systems. But it has been engulfed in controversy and dubbed the “cash for ash scandal” since it emerged that users could legitimately earn more cash the more fuel they burned.

A public inquiry into the process is to be chaired by retired appeal court judge Sir Patrick Coghlin.

Mr Hamilton was set to publish the names of RHI operators last month, but his plans were put on hold after the association launched judicial review proceedings.

Counsel for the group claimed in court they were being used as a political football. He alleged that the Minister wanted to release the list to embarrass others and divert attention from any ministerial and departmental responsibility.

Amid suggestions that DUP “cronies” benefited from the scheme, he contended that the intention was to have everybody else “tarred with the same brush”.

But the judge rejected his assessment of Mr Hamilton’s motives when he referred in the Assembly to supporters of other parties being revealed as RHI recipients.

“That does not permit the court to draw a conclusion that the Minister was acting in bad faith or that he he did not desire transparency,” he pointed out.

Lawyers representing the department had argued that releasing details of those on the scheme was necessary due to its “seismic” impact on Northern Ireland’s political arrangements.