Michael Doran says there's a "difference" between "encouraging people to abuse" the RHI scheme and "making people aware" of how it was constructed.

Image source, RHI Inquiry

He says that if Action Renewables wasn't pointing out the way in which the biggest returns could be generated from the initiative it would've "been failing in what we were supposed to be doing".

Inquiry chair Sir Patrick Coghlin says Action Renewables was drawing a "very, very fine line", especially when it was presenting itself as a charity.

Inquiry counsel Donal Lunny contrasts the advice Michael Doran was giving to potential RHI scheme applicants with what he was telling Stormont's Enterprise Committee at about the same time in 2012.

He drew the committee's attention to the potential distortion in the market that could arise because of the subsidy bands applying to the different sizes of biomass boilers.

Asked how comfortably that sits with his presentations to industry, Mr Doran replies: "Not very comfortably."

Michael Doran accepts that some of the advice he gave to people who were considering installing biomass boilers could be described as a way of "manipulating" or "exploiting" the RHI scheme.

As Action Renewables' managing director, he gave presentations about the scheme.

They included projected incomes from the initiative and he pointed out that far bigger returns could be collected if people installed smaller boilers that were eligible for the scheme's most lucrative subsidy.

Asked if he thinks that was an appropriate thing for Action Renewables, as a charity, to do, Mr Doran says: "Yes."

He says the organisation was trying to encourage people to switch from using fossil fuels to renewable energy sources so by pointing out the better returns it increased the likelihood that people would make the change.

He says it was a way of "operating the scheme to your best advantage".

Inquiry panellist Dame Una O'Brien (below) is concerned about Michael Doran's advice to the Northern Ireland Assembly's Enterprise Committee.

Mr Doran didn't warn the committee about the need for reviews and audits of the RHI scheme and says there was no reason for him not to do so.

Image source, RHI Inquiry

"I took a course of action at that time, which may have been proven to have been flawed," he admits.

The witness says he abhors the situation that has arisen as a result of the RHI fiasco as there's "a contagion in the industry".

Given his knowledge of some of the potential problems with the RHI scheme before it opened, Michael Doran is asked why he didn't think it was useful to point out to the Stormont department running it that it was a "potential recipe for disaster".

He accepts that "in hindsight" he should've pointed out the scheme's flaws, adding: "We might not now be in the situation we are if we had recommended that."

But he claims that had he done so the scheme would've been delayed "by another year or two" and "we were keen to see the scheme going ahead".

Image source, RHI Inquiry

Inquiry chair Sir Patrick Coghlin challenges that view, saying Mr Doran surely can't mean "it was worth wasting public money for a year" just so the scheme would be opened quickly.

The witness says he was "comfortable" to see the scheme "getting off the ground" because he believed DETI could amend it after it opened.

He adds that Action Renewables wasn't considering the potential waste of public money: "Our main concern was to try and get the scheme up and running to the benefit of Northern Ireland."

Michael Doran gave the inquiry an "inaccurate and potentially misleading" answer in relation to how much he knew about the flaws in the RHI scheme, says barrister Donal Lunny.

The witness says he knew early on that the RHI scheme in Northern Ireland did not have cost controls that were in place in the similar initiative that was running in Great Britain.

But Donal Lunny points out in Mr Doran's written evidence he writes that Action Renewables "did not possess" the necessary facts about the scheme.

Image source, RHI Inquiry

That, says Mr Lunny, appears "to create the impression" that Action Renewables wasn't aware of the absence of cost controls and he asks the witness to explain that.

"The answer is incomplete," says Mr Doran.

"Well, I'm going to suggest it's incorrect," responds Mr Lunny.

The RHI debacle was blown open in a BBC Spotlight programme by journalist Conor Spackman in December 2016 - the inquiry is shown some clips from it.

Michael Doran appeared on that programme, explaining the need for incentivisation to get people to switch to renewable heat.

Mr Doran explained the biggest flaw in the scheme - that the subsidy on offer was set higher than the cost of the biomass fuel used in boilers, thus incentivising the scheme participant to keep their boiler running non-stop.

In the programme, he also gave his view on how the scheme should have been run.

In his written statement, Michael Doran has made considerable claims about Action Renewables' reputation as a supplier of impartial advice on energy issues.

The list of bodies that it has advised includes government departments, the Northern Ireland Assembly, the RHI scheme administrator Ofgem, utility regulators, and EU bodies.

Mr Doran was asked by Stormont's Enterprise Committee to give an independent, expert view on the RHI scheme before it was given approval in 2012.

He responded, saying that he was broadly in support of the scheme as it was set up but pointed out one flaw that he said would lead to a "distortion" of the market.

He said that the difference between the subsidy on offer for smaller boilers and the incentive that larger boilers were eligible for was too large.

That was not rectified and had the effect of diving people to have multiple smaller boilers installed instead of one bigger unit for their heating need in order to collect the more lucrative subsidy that was on offer.

Action Renewables has charitable status and it claims its work is focused on the promotion of energy efficiency.

About a quarter of all of the applications to the RHI scheme - more than 500 - were made by Action Renewables and it promoted the initiative at conferences.

Image source, Getty Images

Donal Lunny tells Michael Doran that a key theme of the questions he has in store for him is whether the organisation became a "facilitator of energy inefficiency" in relation to the scheme.

Action Renewables has a commercial wing - Action Renewables Energy Trading (ARET) - which consults and advises on the energy market for a profit, which it then gifts to the charity.

The donations to the charity do not come from the public, says Mr Doran, and the only purpose of ARET is to help Action Renewables pursue its charitable purpose.

Action Renewables was set up by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI) in 2003 in response to government commitments to address climate change and pollution though renewable energy technology.

From 2009, it was only partially financed by DETI and after 2011 no more funding came from the department.

Image source, Getty Images

It moved entirely to the private sector and registered as a charity - after Michael Doran joined it was receiving the majority of its support from European funding.

It also began accrediting renewable energy installation companies.

Michael Doran failed to provide the inquiry with some documents that had been requested of him, including technical consultancy reports about RHI scheme installations.

He only gave the inquiry 220 pages of material last year.

Image source, Getty Images

The inquiry wrote to him on 10 September this year, asking him to produce the missing documents and explain why he hadn't supplied them.

It was on Monday afternoon this week that the inquiry finally received 2,659 pages of additional documents from Action Renewables.

Barrister Donal Lunny says it doesn't appear that Mr Doran has given an explanation about why he didn't hand them over in the first place.

Before taking to the witness chair, Michael Doran takes an oath to tell the truth to the inquiry.

A former chartered surveyor and chartered environmentalist, he's now the managing director of Action Renewables - he's held that role since 2009.

Image source, RHI Inquiry

He was also a founder and former head of the Renewable Heat Association NI - it's a group representing RHI scheme claimants and it lost a legal challenge against Stormont's economy department for its decision to make big cuts to the subsidies on offer.

Mr Doran's witness statement is available on the inquiry's website, external - the inquiry's junior counsel Donal Lunny explains that there are parts of the statement that Mr Doran does not wish to stand over.

Jayne McCormack
BBC News NI politics reporter

The fallout from the RHI scandal has "destroyed" the renewable heat industry in Northern Ireland, the inquiry heard.

Image source, RHI Inquiry

Alan Hegan, who runs a biomass boiler firm, claimed that "the amount of bad press" surrounding the sector meant that nobody wanted to invest in renewable heat, meaning firms were being forced to shut.

He said the business community's confidence in Stormont's economy department had been "absolutely eroded" given how the closure of the scheme had been handled.

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.

When the scale of the overspend emerged, public and political concern rocketed.

As the minister in charge of the Stormont department that set up the RHI scheme, the DUP leader Arlene Foster faced calls to resign from her role as Northern Ireland's first minister in December 2016.

Image source, PA

She resisted, and Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness then quit as deputy first minister in protest at the DUP's handling of what had by then become a full-blown political crisis.

That move brought about the collapse of the Northern Ireland Executive. Now, well beyond a year-and-a-half on from that, Northern Ireland remains without a devolved administration.

You can find much more detail on the RHI scheme in our need-to-know guide.

The budget of the RHI scheme ran out of control because of critical flaws in the way the initiative was set up.

Claimants could effectively earn more money the more fuel they burned because the subsidies on offer for renewable fuels were far greater than the cost of the fuels themselves.

At one point the estimate for the overspend was set at £700m if permanent cost controls weren't introduced - temporary cuts have since pulled the budget back on track for now.

Whatever the scale of the bill, it will have to be picked up by the Northern Ireland taxpayer.

The Renewable Heat Incentive scheme - or RHI for short - came to the fore of the Northern Ireland public's knowledge in late 2016.

The fallout from the scandal attached to it is still being felt in the region's politics today.

Image source, Getty Images

The scheme was set up by the Northern Ireland Executive in 2012 as a way of encouraging businesses to switch from using fossil fuels to renewable sources for generating their heat.

Those who signed up were offered financial incentives to buy new heating systems and the fuel to run them.

It's another autumnal morning at Stormont as the Renewable Heat Incentive Inquiry team gathers for the 98th day of witness testimony.

The man in the spotlight is Michael Doran, the managing director of Action Renewables.

It's an organisation with interests in many different aspects of the renewables industry - you may well have encountered it if you have solar panels on your roof.

The session kicks off in a few minutes - stick with us for a live stream throughout the day and text reporting on the best bits.