•  Did Jonathan Bell issue a Ministerial Directive?
• The DUP did not want to close the RHI scheme after all
• Who overruled advice that the scheme should close?

Ulster Unionist Leader, Mike Nesbitt MLA, said:

“These are shocking revelations from the Nolan Show, plunging the Northern Ireland Executive further into disrepute. This calls into question Arlene Foster`s public statements so far that no advice or recommendations were brought regarding the RHI scheme. If she didn’t receive Andrew McCormick’s advice to close down the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), who did?

“Arlene Foster had just become Finance Minister when Permanent Secretary McCormick was expressing concerns about the scandalous RHI scheme. It would be appropriate for the Finance Minister to be made aware of a scheme with such significant financial implications for the country. And if Andrew McCormick was expressing such concerns it would have been to Jonathan Bell, Arlene Foster`s colleague and successor as Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Investment. Are we to believe that DUP Ministers don`t talk to each other?

“These revelations raise more questions. If Andrew McCormick was so concerned about the continued operation of the RHI scheme, did he leave Jonathan Bell with no choice but to issue a ministerial directive acknowledging those concerns but overruling them? If such a piece of paper exists, it has cost the taxpayer £400 million.

“If OFMdFM were engaged in this issue, then all ministers were aware, including the junior ministers, as all four Ministers are copied into all correspondence. So, the DUP’s Peter Robinson and Michelle McIlveen have questions to answer, as do a whole bunch of Special Advisers, including Timothy Johnston, Richard Bullick, Andrew Crawford and former SPAD Stephen Brimstone.

“In terms of next steps, the Executive needs to rip up their agenda for their meeting tomorrow and put the RHI scandal at the top of the list.  The Public Accounts Committee and the Northern Ireland Audit Office will have to reshape their thinking. And I will be speaking to Jim Nicholson MEP who has already expressed concern this morning that this scheme has gone against state aid rules and raises the spectre of EU infraction and potential fines that could take this scandal to a whole new level.”