RHI: DUP MP Sammy Wilson admits 'error' in Sinn Féin claim

East Antrim MP Sammy Wilson was sued by Sinn Féin's Michelle O'Neill in 2017

A Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MP has accepted he was wrong about when a whistleblower alerted Sinn Féin to flaws in the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme, a court has heard.

It was part of a resolution reached in a libel case over claims Mr Wilson made during a BBC interview in 2017.

Lawyers for Sinn Féin's Michelle O'Neill said a financial settlement had also been agreed.

A donation will be made by the East Antrim MP to a charity of her choice.

Set up to encourage businesses and other non-domestic users to switch to environmentally friendly wood pellet burning systems, the RHI scheme was plunged into controversy when the potential cost to taxpayers emerged.

It became known as the "cash for ash" scandal because subsidies were higher than fuel costs and led to the collapse of Stormont's power-sharing executive in January 2017.

Under revised tariff rates introduced later that year, payments made to scheme members were substantially reduced.

During an interview on BBC NI's The Nolan Show in January 2017, Mr Wilson said Ms O'Neill, then Stormont agriculture minister, and Martin McGuinness, a former deputy first minister, had been made aware of flaws in the RHI scheme in June 2015.

In court on Thursday, Brian Fee KC said Mr Wilson accepts this was "an error on his part".

"The defendant now accepts that the plaintiff and the deputy first minister were not made aware of flaws in the RHI scheme until January 2016, when contact was made by a second whistleblower," he added.

Michelle O'Neill was at the forefront of Sinn Féin's response to issues with the RHI scheme.

Ms O'Neill, now her party's vice-president, had been at the forefront of Sinn Féin's response to issues surrounding the RHI scheme. 

She sued over comments made by Mr Wilson weeks after Stormont collapsed.

Outside court on Thursday, her solicitor, Padraig O'Muirigh, said she was satisfied with the outcome.

"The objective all along in this legal action was to correct the public record in relation to the date of knowledge of both Martin McGuinness and my client, Michelle O'Neill, of the flaws in the RHI scheme," he said.