Why Northern Ireland’s boiler scandal overheated

Visiting Northern Ireland last autumn, I met a very prosperous man who enthused to me about the Renewable Heat Incentive in the province. It paid him to install wood-pellet boilers and heat his rural business.

After the political scandal broke, I understood why he was so happy. The RHI, as managed in Northern Ireland, had no upper limit, so there was no cheating involved in getting as many non-domestic boilers as you could manage. If you installed the boiler you got paid £1.60 for every £1 of pellets you burned, without limit. I gather there was particularly massive take-up by members of the Democratic Unionist Party, and their Free Presbyterian churches glow red day and night in consequence.

The obligations already incurred amount to £500 million for the Northern Ireland Executive, more than £250 per citizen. The farce gave Sinn Fein the excuse it wanted to pull the plug on the Executive, provoking elections.