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.
This is an extract from Charles Moore’s Notes. The full article can be found here.
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