John Robinson says that if he'd resigned after his family ties to the RHI scheme became public it would've authenticated the allegation by Jonathan Bell that he'd interfered in the running of the initiative.

"I had done nothing wrong - I was accused on the basis of a lie," he says.

Image source, PA

He was told by the DUP leader Arlene Foster and her adviser Timothy Johnston that there was a view among some party members that he should quit but he was "absolutely adamant" that he wouldn't do so.

Inquiry chair Sir Patrick Coghlin suggests that it was a "pretty poor piece of leadership" for them to say that without naming who was behind the resignation suggestion.

Mr Robinson says he told Simon Hamilton of his intention not to quit - the economy minister expressed confidence in him and the issue was never raised again.

There was no civil service system in place before December 2016 for John Robinson to make a formal written declaration about his family links to the RHI scheme.

When he was given an official form the next month he filled it in on the same day, he says.

Image source, RHI Inquiry

Inquiry panellist Dame Una O'Brien (above) says the inquiry will need to find out "how it was that these forms did not exist" long before the end of 2016.

As a vastly-experienced former Whitehall civil servant, she says it's a "routine practice in government" to provide officials with opportunities to declare interests before they begin their work.

Mr Robinson's family connection to the RHI scheme became public knowledge in January 2017 and he subsequently stepped aside from involvement in the economy department's work on the initiative.

He says he didn't want to damage his minster Simon Hamilton.

Mr Lunny puts it to him that the only difference between July 2016, when he told the minister, and January 2017, when he stepped aside, was that the public had become aware of the potential conflict of interest.

Mr Robinson says the allegations made in the media that cost controls were not brought forward because of him were not true - he knew it and the minister knew it.

He says he was prepared to step aside "to try and help remove one additional problem", adding: "The focus needed to be getting the scheme fixed."

John Robinson says he regrets not declaring in writing his father-in-law's link to the RHI scheme.

Instead, he had only told the economy minister Simon Hamilton verbally in the summer of 2016.

When he did so, they took a "mistaken view" that because the adviser was "not a decision-maker" no further action was needed.

He put his declaration in writing when his family connection became a "media story" in January 2017 after the RHI debacle had publicly erupted.

John Robinson's father-in-law is a poultry farmer and a claimant on the RHI scheme, with two biomass boilers registered on it.

His father-in-law was diversifying into poultry in 2015, which included the building of poultry sheds - Mr Robinson says it was a project on a "massive scale" but they never discussed it or the RHI scheme.

Image source, Getty Images

He says that when he found out the next year that his father-in-law was benefitting from the scheme he made it clear that "him and I could have no conversations" relating to it.

Mr Robinson accepts that in his role advising the minister responsible for the scheme some people may have perceived there to have been a conflict of interest.

A highly critical report into how the RHI scheme was run, external was issued by the Northern Ireland Audit Office in July 2016 - that was the first time the problems entered the public's consciousness.

John Robinson says he and Simon Hamilton were informed on a Friday afternoon that the report was going to be published a few days later and the minister was "quite furious".

Image source, RHI Inquiry

"That was the first we knew about it," he says.

Mr Robinson says civil servants from the economy department had worked with the Audit Office on the production of the report.

"It led to quite a significant distrust... between the minister and the officials," says the witness.

Simon Hamilton consistently found that his Stormont department had a distinct lack of specialist energy knowledge and the experts were always "on the wrong side of the table", says John Robinson.

The Department for the Economy had a need to recruit people with energy expertise but the "greatest problem" was that it didn't have the "ability to pay the level that was needed".

Image source, Getty Images

The then minister had planned to make a speech outlining his intention to bring more experience to the department in December 2016.

But shortly before that, the RHI debacle was blown wide open in a BBC Spotlight programme and the speech was never delivered, says Mr Robinson.

The then economy minister Simon Hamilton and John Robinson were briefed about the developments in the RHI debacle in June 2016.

They were "shocked" to discover how the scheme's administrator Ofgem was carrying out their checks on boiler owners, says Mr Robinson.

He explains: "People were essentially given prior notice that: 'We're going to inspect you on x date, would that suit?'"

He says Mr Hamilton asked for a system of unannounced checks to be introduced and the minister was prepared to make changes to the scheme "but he wanted them to be legally competent".

Jonathan Bell was lying when he said that DUP "interests" in the poultry industry prevented the tackling of the RHI scheme's problems in 2015 and 2016, claims John Robinson.

The former minister named Mr Robinson and Timothy Johnston in the Northern Ireland Assembly in January 2017 as two DUP figures with "extensive interests in the poultry industry".

Mr Robinson grew up on a farm and two of his brothers are poultry farmers - one for about 20 years, one only within the past two years - and his father-in-law is also a poultry farmer.

But he says he had "no involvement at all" in stopping the addition of cost controls to the initiative, adding that "only Mr Bell can explain" what he alleged that.

He was "as shocked as anyone" when Mr Bell made his claim in the assembly - he found it "incredibly hurtful" and it "catapulted" his family "into a media spotlight, which they didn't deserve".

"Jonathan told lies - he knows he told lies - and I'll just leave it at that."

Former DUP adviser Tim Cairns told the inquiry that everyone within the party knew that Timothy Johnston was "at the top of the tree".

And party leader Arlene Foster said yesterday that advisers who worked with her when she was first minister did "have a seniority" because of their work in Stormont's top office.

Image source, RHI Inquiry

John Robinson says that by virtue of their experience Mr Johnston and Richard Bullick "had a seniority above the other special advisers".

Asked if they were the "most influential" of the DUP advisers, he replies: "I certainly think yes, you could use that [term].

"If they gave you an opinion you would've taken that opinion on board."

Timothy Johnston and Richard Bullick (below) were "by far more experienced" than other DUP advisers, says John Robinson.

Image source, NI Assembly

And he says that while he wouldn't have taken instructions from them, he would've "taken advice on board" and passed that to his minister Simon Hamilton.

It "would've been foolish" not to take their advice "into consideration".

The inquiry has heard that there was an inner circle of powerful advisers within the DUP.

One former DUP adviser Tim Cairns told the panel that Timothy Johnston (below) - who advised the first minister - was the second most powerful person in the party.

Senior Stormont civil servant Dr Andrew McCormick said it was made clear to him that Mr Johnston and fellow adviser Richard Bullick were "first among equals".

John Robinson says in his witness statement that there was no "formal" hierarchy of special advisers but Donal Lunny suggests there was an informal one.

The witness says he was aware that Mr Johnston and Mr Bullick had been part of the DUP's leadership team since before devolution was restored in 2007.

But he adds: "I wouldn't have taken the approach that Timothy or Richard could have given an instruction to me to do something in the Department for the Economy."

John Robinson was appointed as a ministerial adviser to Simon Hamilton (below) at Stormont's Department for the Economy in June 2016.

Inquiry chair Sir Patrick Coghlin said yesterday that he's "heard enough evidence" to see that the DUP didn't follow the proper prodecures for appointing advisers.

A civil service code of practice states that advisers are to be appointed by ministers and several candidates must be considered but it appears that was largely circumvented, with the DUP itself selecting advisers who were then assigned to the party's ministers.

Image source, PA

Asked about his appointment, Mr Robinson says he can't remember seeing a job description for his role before he was told of his appointment during a phone call with Mr Hamilton.

He also says Mr Hamilton told him that he wasn't the only person considered for the job, yet barrister Donal Lunny says the inquiry hasn't received any evidence to back that up.

Asked by inquiry chair Sir Patrick Coghlin what he thinks happened to the other candidates, Mr Robinson says he's "not sure".

Mr Robinson is asked to what extent his his role leading the DUP's press operation was directed by the party's top brass.

Image source, PA

He says spoke on a daily or hourly basis to the then leader Ian Paisley, deputy leader Peter Robinson and the senior advisers Timothy Johnston and Richard Bullick.

"It was very much a close-knit team," he says.

Almost immediately after his graduation with a marketing degree in 2007, John Robinson took up one of the most senior behind-the-scenes roles in the DUP.

He was appointed as the director of communications when he was aged 22, succeeding Timothy Johnston, a former senior DUP adviser and now the party's chief executive - Mr Johnston is married to Mr Robinson's sister.

Donal Lunny says it might seem to some people that 22 is a "very young age" for someone to be assigned to a role to which "significant responsibility" is attached - running the party's entire press operation.

Asked if it was a job that was formally advertised, whether he had to fill in an application form or whether there were any other candidates, Mr Robinson says he can't remember.

He'd been working as a DUP press officer while he was at university and he says he was told by the party's "leadership team" to put his name forward for the new role and was subsequently appointed after an interview.

"It certainly was a big role to take on at 22 years of age... I actually felt at that time: 'Have I the ability and the experience to do the role?'"

The first witness of the day takes the oath and the inquiry's junior counsel Donal Lunny will be asking the questions.

Image source, RHI Inquiry

Mr Lunny tells John Robinson that he's been called before the inquiry because he was a DUP ministerial from May 2016 onward and because of a potential of family interest regarding the RHI scheme.

You'll find his witness statement on the inquiry's website, external.

BBC News NI

Two former DUP advisers - John Robinson and Stephen Brimstone - will give evidence to the inquiry today.

Image source, Pacemaker

Mr Robinson is the DUP's director of communications and was an adviser in Stormont's economy department when Simon Hamilton was the minister.

Stephen Brimstone was an adviser in several Stormont departments - including with Arlene Foster when she was first minister - but left his role in the DUP in late 2016.

Jayne McCormack
BBC News NI political reporter

The DUP leader Arlene Foster said that Jonathan Bell's interview with the BBC's Stephen Nolan about the RHI scandal directly led to the collapse of Northern Ireland's political institutions.

She said that her successor as Stormont's enterprise minister had pressed a "nuclear button" by going public with claims that DUP advisers delayed plans to shut the flawed energy scheme as its budget spiralled out of control.

Image source, PA

Mrs Foster told the inquiry that "paranoia set in with Jonathan" when he felt the party was trying to blame him for the debacle.

That prompted him take a "route with Stephen Nolan which caused the downfall of the executive", she claimed.

BBC News NI

It is the scandal that sent Northern Ireland's devolved government up in flames and risked leaving taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds out of pocket.

The RHI debacle has exposed serious flaws in the region's civil service and governance systems.

BBC News NI has followed every minute of the inquiry into the scandal since it started last autumn.

Read our review of some of the major revelations that have emerged so far.

BBC News NI

An independent inquiry into the RHI scandal was established in January last year by the then finance minister Máirtín Ó Muilleoir.

He ordered it in the wake of the huge public concern and what was then a major political crisis surrounding the scheme.

The RHI Inquiry began in November last year and Sir Patrick Coghlin (below), a retired Court of Appeal judge, is its chair and has been given full control over how it will operate.

Image source, Pacemaker

It is looking at:

• the design and introduction of the RHI scheme
• the scheme's initial operation, administration, promotion and supervision
• the introduction of revised subsidies and a usage cap for new scheme claimants in autumn 2015
• the scheme's closure in February 2016

For more information on the RHI Inquiry, you can read our handy Q&A.