• Distraction tactics being used in RHI fallout
• Public needs to see comprehensive plan to mitigate overspend
• Ulster Unionist criticism of First Minister is not personal- strictly business

Ulster Unionist economy spokesperson Steve Aiken MLA has urged the public not to be distracted from the main issues around the Renewable Heat Incentive scandal.

Mr Aiken said:

“There is a spin campaign of distraction and deflection under way over the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme overspend.  No one should be fooled by the tactics employed by those whose political and financial futures are bound up with the survival of Arlene Foster and the DUP/ Sinn Fein coalition at Stormont.

“For the Ulster Unionist Party, this is not personal, it is strictly business.  This is about the £85,000 it is costing the Northern Ireland taxpayer today and every day.

“In terms of this long delayed plan to mitigate the massive costs inflicted by the RHI on the budget going forward, we await this with great interest.  However, we have been waiting for 18 months for the Executive to come up with a plan.  Kites have been flown and now the Economy Minister and the First Minister- though not the Finance Minister- say they have a preferred option proposal to bring the potential cost of the scheme to zero with no overspend whatsoever.  We need to hear where the Minister for Finance, Máirtín Ó Muilleoir stands in all of this.

“The entire country continues to wait for this plan to emerge with great interest.  It will have to be comprehensive and legally enforceable, not just a short term sticking plaster.

“In the meantime I will simply repeat what I said last July, when the Audit Office reported on the scale of this debacle:

“The report makes clear that if the Northern Ireland department had followed the way the scheme was implemented in the rest of the UK - with sensible safeguards to control costs and protect the public purse - then this situation could have been avoided.

“Now we have a situation where the Audit Office is telling us that the cost to the Northern Ireland block grant will be around £140 million over the next five years.  This is a catastrophic and self-inflicted failure of devolved government.”