RHI crisis: Who's who in heating scheme scandal?

Politics in Northern Ireland was been set ablaze by, of all things, a green energy initiative

The botched Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme was set up to encourage uptake of eco-friendly heat systems over the use of fossil fuels.

But its overgenerous offer of subsidies meant it threatened to cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds.

The fallout from the debacle contributed to the collapse of Northern Ireland's power-sharing government.

BBC News NI looks at those who found themselves in the spotlight.

Arlene Foster, the minister

Northern Ireland's first minister Arlene Foster headed the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (Deti) when the RHI scheme was designed.

She left to go to the Department of Finance, just as the scale of the financial crisis was coming into focus.

Mrs Foster claimed she was ill-served by officials who didn't keep her in the loop about scheme flaws and was let down by her Spad (Special Adviser) who did not read technical reports.

She has described RHI as her "deepest political regret".

When the scale of the scandal emerged in December 2016, there were widespread calls for her to resign.

When she gave evidence to the RHI Inquiry, Mrs Foster said she was "accountable but not responsible" for actions of her special adviser.

Andrew Crawford, adviser

A son of a farmer from Beragh in County Tyrone, Andrew Crawford was the trusted adviser to Arlene Foster during much of her time as a Stormont minister.

He was named by senior civil servant Andrew McCormick in January 2016 as the adviser who exerted influence to keep the scheme open.

Mr Crawford resigned as a DUP ministerial adviser shortly afterwards, insisting he had "acted with complete integrity".

He sent confidential papers about the RHI scheme to family and to Moy Park.

Mr Crawford claimed the DUP had tried to "pin the blame" for the RHI scandal on him when it erupted in the winter of 2015-16.

Timothy Johnston, adviser

Timothy Johnston has long been regarded as the primary behind-the-scenes influence in the DUP.

He was accused of directing a delay in cost controls, which he denied.

As an adviser to Arlene Foster, he was paid the maximum salary allowed for the job - £91,809.

But he said when it came to RHI he couldn't tell the difference between "a tariff and a chestnut".

Tim Cairns, adviser

Tim Cairns was Jonathan Bell's adviser at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (Deti) in 2015 and 2016.

Mr Cairns claimed he was directed by Timothy Johnston to work with Andrew Crawford for the latest possible date for cost controls.

He said he was told the party had to demonstrate it had done all it could to protect the interests of claimants on the scheme.

Mr Cairns' time as a DUP adviser ended in May 2016.

CEPA, the consultants

Energy consultants Cambridge Economic Policy Associates were paid £100,000 by the Enterprise Department to help design RHI.

They missed the fact that their final report on tariff design recommended subsidies that were higher than the fuel cost - the so-called "burn-to-earn" at the heart of the debacle.

David Sterling, permanent secretary

Now the interim head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, David Sterling was the senior official at Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, when RHI was designed and opened in 2012.

However, he left in 2014 before the crisis emerged.

Mr Sterling denied trying to "duck responsibility" for his role in the RHI scheme's set-up, but publicly apologised for the scandal at the inquiry.

His oversight of RHI design and operation was questioned.

Mr Sterling's admission that the civil service did not take minutes of ministerial meetings to frustrate Freedom of Information disclosures caused controversy.

Fiona Hepper, head of Energy Division in Enterprise Department

Fiona Hepper was the head of the energy division at Deti at the time of the RHI scheme and advised then minister Arlene Foster.

She was a civil servant with 30 years experience, but was not a specialist in energy.

She briefed Arlene Foster on the RHI scheme design and denied the DUP leader's claims important information was withheld or downplayed.

It emerged there were no written records of a number of important meetings on RHI.

Ms Hepper conceded there was an over-reliance on consultants and described the failure to identify scheme flaws as a matter of "profound personal and professional regret".

Peter Hutchinson, junior official

Peter Hutchinson was a junior civil servant and a non-specialist who ran RHI day to day from its design until 2014.

He testified in February 2018 that many lessons needed to be learned from the scheme and suggested it would have benefited from better project management and more skilled staff.

The inquiry heard that Mr Hutchinson and a part-time colleague, Joanne McCutcheon, were allowed to leave their posts at about the same time, which inquiry counsel Donal Lunny said left "an experience void".

Mr Hutchinson left a 14-page handover note for his bosses and his successors. Its significance was overlooked.

Andrew McCormick, permanent secretary

As the permanent secretary at the Department for the Economy, formerly Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, Dr Andrew McCormick was in charge during the collapse of the scheme.

Appearing before Stormont's Public Accounts Committee, he said a whistleblower flagged concerns with the scheme two years before its closure, but officials did not believe her.

He accepted that the civil service had been made to look "leaden-footed and slow-witted" by aspects of the scandal.

Jonathan Bell, minister

Jonathan Bell was a DUP MLA and Stormont's enterprise minister during the period that the RHI scheme did the most damage to the public purse.

A flood of applications in the autumn of 2015 meant a commitment to hundreds of millions of pounds in payments.

But in an explosive interview with the BBC's Stephen Nolan Show in December 2016, Mr Bell claimed there had been a DUP conspiracy to keep the scheme open.

He was subsequently suspended by the DUP and ultimately left politics.

During his appearance at the RHI Inquiry in September 2018, he claimed he had been a victim of a "massive smear campaign" by the DUP.

Biomass industry, installers and scheme participants

The industry latched on immediately to the lucrative nature of RHI.

It used advertising slogans like "burn-to-earn" and "cash-for-ash" to promote the scheme and denied claims that there had been a conspiracy of silence.

During the 2015 spike, the industry was so busy that one installer cancelled a family holiday while another had a customer who air freighted a boiler from Europe to beat the subsidy cut deadline and avail of lucrative tariffs.

Moy Park, chicken company

It was a major employer whose supplier farmers drove much of the demand for RHI.

It denied the scheme had been a backhanded subsidy, but had to accept there had been an indirect financial benefit.

Not only did bird productivity improve, but Moy Park saved on heating costs paid to farmers, who topped them up from their healthy RHI income.

It benefited from confidential information shared by Andrew Crawford and officials from the Enterprise Department.

Janette O'Hagan, whistleblower

The owner of an energy efficiency business, Ms O'Hagan emailed Arlene Foster to highlight abuse of the scheme but the warning was overlooked.

She met officials to raise concerns, but she was not believed.

She told the inquiry she was surprised that firms did not put radiators on their outside walls as they could make a profit from that.

Ofgem (Office of Gas and Electricity Markets)

It managed RHI for the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment.

But joint oversight structures were not set up and Ofgem's inspection rate was low - just 31 boilers - because Deti did not have money for any more.

Ofgem resisted sharing detailed information with the department about RHI owners as it was concerned it might breach data laws. That made it hard to identify patterns of high heat use.

John Robinson, adviser

In June 2016, he was appointed a special adviser to the then economy minister, Simon Hamilton, who succeeded Jonathan Bell.

Mr Robinson was named in the Northern Ireland Assembly as being one of two DUP advisers with "extensive interests in the poultry industry".

At the time, Mr Robinson said his family farm had chicken houses that were not part of the RHI scheme but did not mention his father-in-law had two RHI boilers.

He said he did not discuss the RHI scheme with his father-in-law.

He later stepped aside from any future involvement in the RHI scheme.

Simon Hamilton, minister

Mr Hamilton held the health, finance and economy portfolios, the latter replacing enterprise.

He was caught up in the controversy over the fallout from the RHI scheme in late 2016.

Mr Hamilton acquiesced in a DUP plan to leak private emails to divert media attention from party colleague Andrew Crawford, and onto Mr Hamilton's own civil servants who'd been briefing the industry about tariff changes.

He accepted it had not been his "finest hour". Mr Hamilton has now quit politics.

Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, minister

The former finance minister who set up the inquiry and the only member of Sinn Féin who gave evidence in person.

He revealed that Sinn Féin had circumvented laws meant to exclude anyone with a conviction working as a political adviser or Spad.

His evidence about the process for appointing his own Spad was later contradicted by a woman he said he had considered.

It also emerged that he had been communicating with senior republicans about proposals to close the scheme though, he said, he was advising them of his decisions, not asking their permission.

He was criticised by the inquiry chair for the manner in which he and then Economy minister Simon Hamilton had handled the scheme closure.

Sir Patrick likened them to two "alleycats" circling each other for a scrap rather than co-operating to save the public purse.

Stuart Wightman, civil servant

He headed up RHI as the scheme careered towards collapse.

He inappropriately shared information in the summer of 2015 with the biomass industry and Moy Park ahead of a public announcement on tariff changes for the autumn.

Mr Wightman said he had done it to avoid legal action, that he had recorded his actions and didn't think it had contributed to the application spike.