Finance Minister Máirtín Ó Muilleoir tells the assembly that the inquiry into the RHI scandal will have the power to compel witnesses and evidence.

The areas they will investigate will be wide-ranging and will include:

• the development and roll-out of the RHI scheme by the then Department of Enterprise Trade and Investment;
• the signing off of the scheme by the then Department of Finance;
• the issue of cost controls and tariffs;
• the delay in implementing cost control measures before November 2015 which lead to the spike of autumn 2015;
• the closure of the scheme in February 2016.

"Rest assured, every stone will be turned and there will be no dark corners where the light won't shine," he says.

Sir Patrick Coghlin will have "absolute control over the scope and execution of the inquiry", and it will be "entirely independent".

That will go some way to "rebuilding the shattered public confidence in the institutions", Mr Ó Muilleoir adds.

Finance Minister Máirtín Ó Muilleoir is giving details of the public inquiry he has set up into the botched Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme.

He announced the establishment of an inquiry last week, and tells MLAs today that the case for an investigation is "clear-cut" after a "drip-feed of serious allegations of corruption, mismanagement, incompetence and political interference" in the green energy initiative.

Image source, Tchara

The inquiry will be chaired by retired appeal court judge Sir Patrick Coghlin and will begin on Wednesday 1 February.

Sir Patrick will be "unflinching in his pursuit of the truth and scrupulous in his analysis of the evidence", the finance minister says, and will be supported by two panel members.

Assessors from outside Northern Ireland can be appointed to assist the panel, if it wishes.

Ulster Unionist Andy Allen (below) says he has spoken to the clinicians, and they say that "it is resources and infrastructure that is a barrier".

The minister says "it's not a money issue in that sense" and that it is quite proper for clinicians to decide which patients are suitable for treatment.

"It's clear that in this case there has been a breakdown in the relationship between the parents and the trust," Sinn Féin's Pat Sheehan says.

Paula Bradshaw of the Alliance Party welcomes the minister's answers saying "that seems very hopeful".

Health Minister Michelle O'Neill says this is "a very sensitive issue" and she is "sympathetic to the needs" of the children.

She says it is " a decision or the clinicians in the Belfast Health Trust".

Mrs O'Neill says the families are being contacted to invite them to meet the clinical team on Thursday.

Nichola Mallon says it is not a matter of cost because the authorities do not have to pay for the drugs, they only have to provide the necessary staff and the theatre space.

An urgent oral question for Health Minister Michelle O'Neill now, from the SDLP's Nichola Mallon.

The question is: "Whether all children in Northern Ireland with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) type one will be included in the potentially life changing Nusinersen drug trial?"

The families of three Northern Ireland children who have SMA are calling on the Belfast Health Trust to explain why they are being denied access to the drug.

SMA is a genetic disease that affects motor neurones, causing progressive muscle weakness and loss of movement.

The new drug was approved in December but has yet to be licensed.

Just time for a quick question on Brexit from the SDLP's Nichola Mallon, who asks the economy minister that given the "hard-Brexit stance taken by" Prime Minister Theresa May if he accepts that a case must be made for special status for Northern Ireland in talks over the UK's withdrawal from the EU.

Image source, Getty Images

Simon Hamilton says Northern Ireland "will and should continue to seek" a deal that "reflects the particular circumstances" of the region.  

But he says it is "regrettable" that Northern Ireland's "voice may not be heard as clearly as it should be at a critical time" in the Brexit negotiations due to Stormont's collapse.

Ulster Unionist Steve Aiken asks the economy minster if he will report Dublin Airport Authority to the EU for "its seeming use of state funds for building infrastructure in an unfair manner".

"That's an interesting idea," replies Simon Hamilton, who says of Mr Aiken: "I suppose he's due a good idea."

The minister makes an observation about the competition between airports in Northern Ireland and Dublin Airport (above).

"I think we have to accept that Northern Ireland's airports cannot compete directly, and a lot of those routes that Dublin are able to secure are probably not going to come to any Northern Ireland airports."

Julian O'Neill
BBC News NI Business Correspondent

Unsurprisingly, the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme raises its head immediately for the economy minister, who is asked about his plan to mitigate the initiative's projected £490m overspend.

Simon Hamilton's initial one-year proposal to help cut that cost was approved by the assembly yesterday.

But his intention to publish a list of the scheme's beneficiaries hit a snag today, with a judge issuing an interim injunction preventing the publication of hundreds of names of those in receipt of RHI subsidies.

Image source, Thinkstock

Mr Hamilton tells MLAs he "deeply regrets" the injunction but wants to consider the ruling in full before deciding on the next move.

He adds that he still wants to see the "fullest possible transparency" over who is claiming subsidies from the RHI scheme.

Mr Hamilton has already laid out his intention for all RHI installations to be inspected by auditors, and he tells the assembly that the tender to carry out that work out will go out "Europe-wide", will be awarded "in the coming months" and the inspections are expected to begin "in the not too distant future".

Simon Hamilton is up now to take questions on his brief at the Department for the Economy.

Steve Aiken of the UUP asks the communities minister about his refusal to devolve regeneration powers to local councils, particularly as the Northern Ireland Assembly faces a possible "long period of suspension".

Paul Givan's reply demonstrates that he is clearly a "glass half full" person.

"We should go into this election with the mindset of getting this place up and running again on the other side of the election," he says.

Paul Givan defends a community halls grants scheme that came in for criticism this month from Sinn Féin and the SDLP, who claimed that it appeared to be aimed primarily at the unionist community.

The communities minister launched the scheme at an Orange Hall in October , externalalongside his party leader Arlene Foster.

Image source, Department for Communities

The funding pot was originally £500,000, but that figure has nearly quadrupled to £1.9m since the autumn. 

Mr Givan says applications were received from various organisations, including churches, GAA clubs and community groups, and a feeling from nationalists that it was a "sectarian" scheme aimed only at Orange halls is merely a "perception when it's not actually grounded in fact".

"Any suggestion whatsoever that this had a sectarian agenda is completely false," Mr Givan adds.

SDLP MLA Nichola Mallon asks about the "social sector size criteria", other wise known as the bedroom tax.

The communities minister outlines the mitigation package for people affected by the bedroom tax.

Ms Mallon asks why debate on the mitigation measures was held back until just a few weeks before the introduction of the tax.

Paul Givan says the mitigation measures "didn't just include the social sector bedroom tax there were a whole range of mitigation measures that we have had to introduce".

He says it has been advanced "in a proper timeframe" and there was no risk that it would not be in place in time.

David Ford of the Alliance Party asks about the "transparency of political donations, particularly in the context of planning decisions".

"Would the minister agree that it's time that large donations were made public?" he asks.

Mr Givan says his party is very clear on this.

"Donations will be made public whenever the [Northern Ireland Office] decides that they're going to release it," he says.

Communities Minister Paul Givan is first up at the despatch box for Question Time.

Supporting the motion is Sinn Féin's Philip McGuigan, who says public confidence in Stormont's institutions has "diminished in recent times" because of the conduct of DUP minsters.

He accuses Communities Minister Paul Givan of "blatant sectarian distribution of funds", and says people have stopped him in the street to ask how DUP ministers "can get away with the decisions they are making".

Allegations against the DUP on the botched Renewable Heat Incentive scheme show, he says, why executive ministers "need to be held to account by proper procedures".

Green Party leader Steven Agnew introduces his party's motion calling for the expansion of the role of the assembly commissioner for standards to allow him to investigate alleged breaches of the ministerial code of conduct.

"I think, given recent events, if the assembly was to oppose this again today there would be public anger," says Mr Agnew.

He says the standards commissioner has expressed his support for the proposal.

Winding the motion is the UUP's Roy Beggs, who says the public is concerned with the "inconsistencies" of the bail system and the strength of some sentences handed out for serious offences.

"It's important that everybody appreciates that because if we are to retain public confidence in our justice system, [the public] must have a feeling that it is fair and proportionate," he tells MLAs.

"We need the same standards of justice must delivered to everybody."

When the oral vote proves indecisive, the speaker calls a division and the motion is passed by 51 votes to 33.

Justice Minister Claire Sugden says reviews of the case of Damien McLaughlin's absconding are under way by the PSNI and the Police Ombudsman.

"There will be lessons to be learned, I am sure, and I almost hate using that phrase because we need more than that."

Reform to bail system cannot be made without "wider, systemic improvements" of the criminal justice system, the minister says, and actions is being taken to speed up the justice process.

The motion has "captured the interest of the general public", she says, because it "concerns their safety".

"That's what we should be putting our focus on."

"There patently is a problem with the administration of bail," says TUV leader Jim Allister.  

The North Antrim MLA points his finger at a particular cause.

"The source of this problem is the European Convention on Human Rights," he says.

Mr Allister says that article 5 of the convention "creates a presumption in favour of bail", leaving it up to the prosecution to argue why bail should be denied.