That was a difficult day for Michael Doran.

The inquiry panel gave a scathing assessment of some of his evidence and was highly critical of what it viewed as a lack of cooperation from his organisaton Action Renewables.

Tomorrow will be the 99th day of inquiry hearings - the morning session will feature the SDLP MLA Patsy McGlone, a former chair of Stormont's Enterprise Committee.

And after lunch it'll hear again from Timothy Johnston, who was Arlene Foster's former adviser and is now the chief executive of the Democratic Unionist Party.

Join us at 09:45 tomorrow morning...

Jayne McCormack
BBC News NI politics reporter

A charity that promoted itself as the "leading authority" on renewable heat knew from the outset that the RHI scheme was flawed, the inquiry heard.

Michael Doran, who runs Action Renewables, which claims to promote efficient use of energy, was giving evidence to the inquiry.

Image source, Pacemaker

He said his organisation had known from the scheme's early days that there was no cost control mechanism to prevent it being exploited for profit.

But he did not tell Stormont's enterprise department about the potential problem because he felt that by doing so could have delayed the introduction of the initiative by more than a year.

Action Renewables received almost £400,000 for its work in filling out RHI scheme application forms for people, which Donal Lunny says is "a very substantial amount of money".

Michael Doran is keen to point out that it's less than 10% of his organisation's revenue and says that over four years the money made from working on applications was "approximately £100,000 a year".

His patience perhaps worn thin, Mr Lunny's response is cutting: "We're not mathematical geniuses in the inquiry, Mr Doran, but we can divide £400,000 by four."

Image source, Getty Images

The barrister also tells the inquiry that the fee that Invest NI paid for each of the 40 or more technical reports that Action Renewbales carried out for its clients was often about £1,750.

He asks whether all of that "very substantial amount of money" explains Mr Doran's "reluctance" to tell DETI about the RHI scheme's flaws.

"If you killed the goose that lays golden eggs there wouldn't be this income source any longer," he adds.

Mr Doran denies that and says that Action Renewables' work relating to the scheme was done at a loss.

Michael Doran admits that he may have misled the Charity Commission in an investigation it conducted into Action Renewables' work in relation to the RHI scheme.

A complaint was made against Action Renewables to the commission after the Irish News reported that the organisation had facilitated applications to scheme in spite of knowing about its flaws, external.

As part of the commission's investigation, it was told by the trustees of Action Renewables that they were "not aware of anything being wrong" with the RHI scheme.

Image source, RHI Inquiry

But that doesn't match what Mr Doran has told the inquiry - he said this morning that he knew of weaknesses in the scheme before it opened in 2012.

Inquiry chair Sir Patrick Coghlin says the "inescapable inference" is that Mr Doran was "misleading" the commission.

After several seconds of silence, Mr Doran acknowledges: "It would appear from this document, yes."

Michael Doran claims to have paid "very little" attention to the RHI Inquiry, apart from what's been published about it in the papers and online.

Inquiry panellist Dr Keith MacLean says he's "really struggling" to understand that, given the witness's long experience of working in the renewable energy sector.

Image source, RHI Inquiry

"I think the work of this inquiry is extremely important," says Mr Doran, but he adds that he works 65 hours a week and does't sit in his office all day watching the proceedings.

Dame Una O'Brien says it's fortunate that the inquiry has been able to obtain Mr Doran's technical energy reports related to the RHI scheme through another source - Invest NI.

"That doesn't alleviate you personally, in my view, of your responsibility to have given them to us in the first place."

Michael Doran was a founding member of the Renewable Heat Association NI, which has taken legal action over a number of decisions by Stormont's economy department in relation to the RHI scheme.

He was the named applicant in a legal action against the department's decision to release the names of claimants on the scheme.

Image source, PA

But Mr Doran claims he's taken no interest in what happened to that action because he was "no longer a director" and "had no further involvement whatsoever".

Asked by inquiry chair Sir Patrick Coghlin what the point of his involvement in the challenge was, Mr Doran says there was an "abusive campaign" that suggested RHI scheme claimants were "scamming the system" and it was the "right thing to do" to support them.

Dame Una O'Brien is "finding it very difficult" to understand why Michael Doran didn't instruct to his staff at Action Renewables to send the technical reports to the inquiry.

"Why did you not request that those documents be got together and given to the inquiry straight away?"

Image source, RHI Inquiry

Mr Doran apologises and says it was because of a lack of diligence when his organisation was preparing the witness statement - he claims that Action Renewables "forgot all about" the reports.

Dame Una says the inquiry is "trying to do a job on behalf of the public" and is "trying to get it done as quickly as possible."

She feels that what has happened with the reports is "frustrating the work of the inquiry".

Donal Lunny continues to press Michael Doran, this time about why he didn't tell DETI about the critical flaws and loopholes in the RHI scheme.

Mr Lunny tells the witness that he claimed to be a "foremost authority" on renewable energy and Action Renewables was a "go-to" organisation for government departments and other public bodies.

Image source, RHI Inquiry

"You were viewed as some sort of independent, impartial, expert, honest broker."

Mr Doran says it's "difficult to answer" why he failed to tell DETI about the scheme's weaknesses and claims that he doesn't think civil servants would've listened to Action Renewables.

"I accept that there are failings... at the time it didn't seem that was our, erm, I don't know, I'm not quite sure."

Donal Lunny demands to know whether Michael Doran made a "deliberate attempt to mislead" the inquiry by not providing his crucial reports related to the RHI scheme.

Mr Doran says he was on holiday when Action Renewables was drawing up its response to the inquiry.

Image source, RHI Inquiry

"I can understand that this appears as though we're being misleading - we're not", he says, claiming that it was an "oversight" on the part of his organisation.

Inquiry chair Sir Patrick Coghlin asks how many public inquiries Mr Doran has had to respond to in the past 18 months.

Just this one, replies Mr Doran.

Michael Doran accepts the inquiry barrister's point that his written evidence is "substantially misleading".

In response to specific written questions from the inquiry, his statement made only one brief reference to the dozens of energy reports that Action Renewables carried out for Invest NI clients, in which the RHI scheme was recommended.

Image source, RHI Inquiry

Some of the answers Mr Doran provided are "flatly contradicted" by what is contained in the reports, says Mr Lunny, including a denial that Action Renewables carried out analysis of the potential rates of return that were available from the RHI scheme.

A deeply unimpressed Donal Lunny exhibits an enormous degree of measure when he looks Mr Doran straight in the eye and tells him that the inquiry didn't receive a single one of those reports until Monday this week.

And it has yet to receive an explanation as to why they hadn't been supplied much earlier.

Action Renewables was receiving significant amounts of public money from Invest NI for the technical reports it was compiling for businesses about their heating systems.

Image source, Getty Images

Michael Doran blames some of the "poorly worded" passages in the papers on the "time constraints" that his organisation faced in drawing them up, claiming that they had to be done within two or three days.

But the inquiry barrister Donal Lunny strikes back quickly to point out that Action Renewables was getting £500 a day for its work.

In the energy reports complied for businesses by Michael Doran's Action Renewables, the vast sums of money that could be earned through the RHI scheme were clearly outlined.

One report from March 2014 points out that a business spending about £70,000 on a new heating system could expect to recoup that money from the scheme in just over a year and a half.

Over the 20-year lifetime of the RHI, the business was due to collect a surplus from the initiative of £771,540.

The inquiry barrister Donal Lunny says that's "phenomenal" and "could fairly be described as a windfall".

Image source, RHI Inquiry

Watch to watch the afternoon session? Press play on the video at the top of this page.

Jayne McCormack
BBC News NI politics reporter

A charity that promoted itself as the "leading authority" on renewable heat knew from the outset that the RHI scheme was flawed, the inquiry heard.

Michael Doran, who runs Action Renewables, which claims to promotes efficient use of energy, is giving evidence to the inquiry.

Image source, RHI Inquiry

He said his organisation had known from the scheme's early days that there was no cost control mechanism to prevent it being exploited for profit.

But he did not tell Stormont's enterprise department about the potential problem because he felt that by doing so could have delayed the introduction of the initiative by more than a year.

There'll be many more questions for Michael Doran after the break - join us again at 14:05.

Technical reports complied by Action Renewables contained a "philosophy" about a "wrong" and "probably illegal" method to generate cash from the RHI scheme, admits Michael Doran.

The inquiry takes a look at one from March 2014 that Mr Doran was involved in compiling - it advises a business should install two biomass boilers under 99Kw "to maximise the RHI incentive".

Mr Doran insists that part of his role in compiling the report was to recommend the best option for the client from a financial perspective, otherwise he could face a legal challenge.

The report points out how "significant returns" can be earned through the RHI scheme if a boiler is "operated longer than necessary" - it states that the "philosophy is not wrong".

Mr Doran is challenged about that and reminded that Action Renewables is a charity promoting energy efficiency - Mr Lunny says that it appears from the report that the organisation was "condoning" was "the very opposite of that".

The witness accepts that "we should not have written that" - he puts it down to carelessness.

Action Renewables complied about 40 bespoke reports for businesses, recommending ways of saving money on heating by switching to renewable energy.

That work was done through Northern Ireland's economic development agency Invest NI - as part of its support for businesses it engaged Action Renewables to draw up the reports.

Michael Doran's name was listed on the reports, suggesting that he had some involvement in them, but he admits that he didn't write some of them and didn't read the others.

Image source, Getty Images

He insists that he "wasn't trying to mislead people by pretending that I had signed off on the reports".

Inquiry chair Sir Patrick Coghlin says it's "simply common sense" that Mr Doran should've at least read something to which he'd put his name.

Mr Doran says he stands over all of the reports because he has "full confidence" in his colleague Jonathan Buick who complied them.

In his witness statements, Michael Doran has claimed that Action Renewables did not actually promote the uptake of the RHI scheme.

Image source, RHI Inquiry

But the he relents when it's put to him that the organisation's presentational events amounted to active promotion.

He accepts that his written evidence is "not correct".

The relationship between Action Renewables and DETI had weakened as a result of two disputes about money, says Michael Doran.

DETI had been funding Action Renewables until 2011, with the support being reduced in the final few years before it ceased.

Image source, Getty Images

Mr Doran says he thinks there may have been a feeling within DETI that "they would have been happier if Action Renewables didn't exist".

As a result of the disputes, Michael Doran didn't feel inclined to communicate with the department about the potential problems in its RHI scheme.