March 2020. The official report into Northern Ireland’s cash-for-ash scandal has issued a blistering indictment of incompetence by the Democratic Unionist party (DUP), special advisers and civil servants at Stormont. The findings of the public inquiry, published on Friday, laid bare a “multiplicity of errors and omissions” behind a bungled green energy scheme that shattered confidence in politicians and fuelled doubts about the region’s ability to rule itself. Sir Patrick Coghlin, the inquiry chairman, faulted Arlene Foster, the first minister and DUP leader who presided over the scheme, for not reading her own department’s legislation. “To do so is a core part of a minister’s job,” he said, and criticised the behaviour of some ministers and special advisers as “wholly inappropriate”. However, Coghlin absolved participants of corruption, a crucial finding that will limit the political fallout from the renewable heat initiative (RHI).
Mar 2020. The Cash for Ash Scandal
