The Economy Committee wraps up for the evening, and that's the end to business at the Northern Ireland Assembly for this week.

We'll go and recharge the batteries after a manic few days, but we'll be back up here on the hill bright and early next week.  

Image source, AFP

Believe it or not, the Economy Committee is reconvening at 09:30 on Monday morning for another session on the RHI mitigation package with Minister Simon Hamilton and, you've guessed it, Dr Andrew McCormick.

Stormont Live will be there.

It'll be followed by another session from the assembly chamber, and it promises to be dramatic.

Until then, it's goodbye from us!

The Alliance Party's Stephen Farry asks the Renewable Heat Association members if they can see an argument that releasing a full list of beneficiaries of the RHI scheme would be in the public interest and the interests of themselves.

Michael Doran says he cannot see the benefit to the public to know which businesses are claiming from the scheme when they are not aware of what contribution to those firms are making to the economy.

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"[The public] will say: 'Mr A got £100,000 out of it this year and Mr B got £20,000 - Mr A is the baddie," he explains.

"That'll be the perception, but it's quite possible that Mr B was acting fraudulently and Mr A has got is business doing everything dead right."

Instead, he suggests a fairer approach is to release the names and the amount of money they are receiving after an audit of all scheme claimants has been carried out.

Mark Devenport
BBC News NI Political Editor

Former deputy first minister Martin McGuinness will not seek re-election to the Northern Ireland Assembly in March.

Image source, PA

The Sinn Féin veteran says he had been planning to stand down in May, on the 10th anniversary of sharing power with Ian Paisley.

But that plan was overtaken by his health problems and the political crisis, explains.

The Renewable Heat Association has no alternative suggestion to the economy minister's plans to cut the cost of the RHI scheme, it's chair Michael Doran tells the committee.

Alliance Party MLA Stephen Farry asks him for a better suggestion than the one on the table for the executive could "balance its budgets without doing as much potential damage to your industries as you're setting out".

In response, Mr Doran says: "We've been in existence for two weeks," adding that and there has been no consideration of an alternative plan by its members in that time.

Mr Farry also asks why the group is so focused on tackling fraud in the RHI scheme, when the money to be saved in those cases is relatively small in the broad sense.

"I don't think that's going to recoup a lot of money but let's get those people out of the scheme first," Mr Doran tells him.

No-one would have signed up to the RHI scheme if the newly proposed tariff had been on the table when the initiative was first launched, Tom Forgrave says.

"The numbers do not add up and there would not be one boiler put in", the poultry sector representative says.

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He goes on to say that the press is reporting that poultry producers are "making 82% return" through the scheme.

"Is it any wonder were being demonised? There is nobody making that return but this is in the paper."

He warns that the proposals will have "very, very serious consequences" for the poultry industry if they are implemented.  

Mark Devenport
BBC News NI Political Editor

SDLP MLA Sinéad Bradley tells the Renewable Heat Association representatives that they "have to appreciate there is a balance" to be struck between their interests and the public purse.

She takes issue with a point made by John Martin, who said it would "reflect poorly" on MLAs if they support the cost-cutting measures when they come before in the assembly on Monday.

"We have to all take a measured yardstick to this," she says.

"I think it's duty-bound on all of us to take that more measured approach rather than saying its just a poor reflection on somebody if they want to take action to somehow alleviate this drain on the public purse."

Planned measures to cut the cost of the RHI scheme are "poorly thought-out and a knee-jerk reaction" to the controversy surrounding the initiative, the chair of a biomass energy sector group says.

John Martin tells the Economy Committee that the proposed legislation will have "very significant consequences" for small businesses.

The "rush" to pass the plan has "bypassed the scrutiny mechanisms that are the cornerstone of good government".

Tom Forgrave is a representative of the poultry sector, who says farmers have invested "significant sums of money" in boilers and equipment to transfer heat from those boilers to chicken sheds.

He outlines some of the advantages the RHI scheme has brought to this multi-billion pound industry, including 

Mr Forgrave says that prior to the adoption of wood pellet boilers the poultry sector was "one of the biggest users of liquid propane gas in Northern Ireland", and that there have been "numerous benefits to the welfare of our chickens".

He says it has reduced the use of antibiotics in chickens "to almost zero".

The poultry sector in Northern Ireland's largest employer, he says, but  its expansion would be hindered if the RHI mitigation plan is implemented.

Eilane Shaw speaks on behalf of the Northern Ireland mushroom sector.

"We're just saying it's wholly unfair to break the contracts with growers that have adhered  to the conditions of the scheme in full," she says.

"Mushroom growers entered the scheme for the correct reasons and have at all times adhered to the criteria."

Representatives of the Renewable Heat Association begin their presentation on the cost-cutting proposals for the RHI scheme.

Michael Doran says it is a group of owners, trade bodies and suppliers, with about 350 members.

He says they are "responsible operators who do not seek to abuse the scheme".

"We have concerns about the speed with which the proposed legislative change is being brought in, and that there has been no consultation before the change" he says.

Mr Doran says they intend to challenge the legislation in court.

BBC News Northern Ireland

Finance Minister Máirtín Ó Muilleoir has asked officials to take steps to establish a public inquiry into the RHI controversy.

Image source, Press Eye

The Sinn Féin MLA confirmed the news in a statement on Thursday, and said he would make a full statement to the assembly next week.

Sinn Féin has been accused of flip-flopping on whether the RHI scandal should be subject to a full public inquiry or an independent investigation.

BBC News Northern Ireland

A top DUP adviser has resigned after claims he exerted influence over the botched RHI scheme.

Andrew Crawford was a long-time aide to Arlene Foster, through the former fist minister's time in the executive, and had most recently been working with Agriculture Minister Michelle McIlveen.

On Wednesday, a senior civil servant said he understood Dr Crawford had influenced the decision to keep the RHI scheme running, an allegation that he adviser denies.

Mrs Foster said Dr Crawford felt he "was becoming a distraction", and she added that he was "faithful servant" to the people of Northern Ireland.

Alliance Party MLA Stephen Farry asks what the risks are with the proposed approach to cut the cost of the RHI scheme.

"The least risk approach is to do nothing but then that costs [the Northern Ireland budget] 25 million quid next year, which I don't think anyone is keen to live with," Mr Murphy says.

He says the legal risks of the proposed rescue plan have already been outlined, but there remains the practical question of whether the measures can be "operationalised" by the administrators Ofgem.

"My understanding is that 'comfort' as come from Ofgem that they can put this through the computers," the official says.

Approval of the RHI cost rescue plan from the Department of Finance is "progressing well", Dr Andrew McCormick says.

Last Monday, MLAs suspended their debate on the proposals when it became clear the department could have a further week to firm up them up before the final meeting of the assembly.

Dr McCormick leaves the committee room to head to another engagement.

But he will be back before the Economy Committee on Monday morning when he will be joined by Economy Minister Simon Hamilton to further discuss the RHI cost mitigation proposals before MLAs vote on it in the assembly chamber later that day.

A "highly-effective inspection regime" to tackle fraud in the RHI scandal would only save about £1m a year, Dr Andrew McCormick says.

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That outlines the difference between the cost of fraudulent use of the scheme and the cost created as a result of the overgenerous subsidy.

"When [poultry producer] Moy Park and others claim that all you have to do is come down on fraud, that simply is not the case - there is no evidence whatsoever that that is sufficient to make a difference," the permanent secretary tells the committee.

Long-term options for cutting the overspend of the RHI scheme are "not sufficiently developed" for the department to "take the plunge" on them "without crossing your fingers", Shane Murphy says.

That's why a short-term solution to stop paying people "super-normal profits" is proposed to rein in the costs is on the cards for now.

An option on the table was an "off-the-shelf set of tariffs" that were "grounded in the logic of the scheme and could be used to aid your defence" in the case of a legal challenge.

Alternatively, another measure would have saved an extra £1m to £2m a year but would have led to a "reducton of the legal strength of your case".

Next year's RHI scheme cost will hit £50m if a savings plan is not implemented immediately, civil servant Shane Murphy says.

He explains that £22m is available from the Treasury to cover part of that, but a £28m hole will have to be plugged by Stormont.

He says the department is "nowhere near on track unless we change".

He tells the committee that about 10% of beneficiaries of the RHI scheme have already earned so much money through initiative that even if their payments were cut off completely "retrospective action" would still be needed to reduce the overspend in their case to nothing.

Legal advice on the cost rescue plan for the RHI scheme is "clear and robust", Dr Andrew McCormick says.

He outlines one potential line of challenge - the right to property under the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Department for the Economy explains that the convention says there is a "need not to interfere with people's property except in the public interest", and therefore the "exception is explicitly there" for a legislative change to the scheme to be made.

"The argument that is clearly behind this proposal is that the public interest is not being served by the excessive compensation that is going to beneficiaries of the scheme through the existing tariff," he adds.

There is "concern in London" about the colossal overspend in the RHI scheme, Dr Andrew McCormick tells the committee.

"HM Treasury has noticed - they read the Northern Ireland newspapers," he says.

"Given the contribution from UK taxpayers to Northern Ireland," he says, "we do have, de facto, a responsibility to act and secure control of public expenditure."