The passing of a Stormont Bill to formally close a botched green energy scheme in Northern Ireland has been welcomed across the Assembly chamber.
The RHI (Closure of Non-Domestic Scheme) Bill reached its final stage on Tuesday, and is now awaiting royal assent.
The Bill provides the legal framework for closure of the scheme that became known as “cash for ash”, with detailed operational arrangements to follow.
The Renewable Heating Incentive (RHI) scheme, set up in Northern Ireland in 2012, incentivised businesses and farmers to switch to eco-friendly boilers by paying them a subsidy for the wood pellet fuel needed to run them.
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But mistakes in its design meant the subsidy rates were set higher than the actual cost of the wood pellets, and applicants found themselves able to “burn to earn”.
The scandal contributed to the collapse of devolved government in Northern Ireland in January 2017, when former deputy first minister Martin McGuinness took issue with the DUP’s handling of the scheme.
With Stormont facing an overspend bill of hundreds of millions of pounds, cost-control steps were taken in 2019.
The New Decade, New Approach agreement, which restored the Stormont institutions in 2020, included a commitment that RHI would be closed down and replaced by another scheme to reduce carbon emissions.
The same year, a public inquiry identified a multiplicity of mistakes in the running of the RHI scheme.
On Tuesday, Stormont Minister for the Economy Caoimhe Archibald hailed a consensus for the first time between political parties, scheme participants and the Treasury on how to manage it.
Speaking in the Assembly, Archibald said she is confident the proposals for closure and arrangements for existing participants would enable the scheme to be closed in a way that is fair to both participants and the rate payer.
“This Bill is vital as it lays the foundation for the closure of the scheme, reiterates the department’s commitment to ensuring that this is achieved in a way that is fair to the participants and to the wider taxpayers,” she said.
Stormont Economy Committee chairman and DUP MLA Phillip Brett commended the reaching of a consensus, as well as the proposals for the scheme’s closure.
SDLP MLA Sinéad McLaughlin welcomed what she termed the “closing chapter of the darkest episodes in the history of devolution”.
Alliance MLA David Honeyford also welcomed the Bill, describing RHI as an “episode that will live long in the memory of this place, but something we can now put to bed”.
“I do also want to acknowledge that the Minister has managed to bring all parties together here to bring this to closure, and that’s something to thank you for and to be welcomed,” he said.
“But the ghost of RHI cannot hold the department back as we move forward. We have got to move forward now to be able to transition away from fossil fuels and on to renewables.” – PA
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