I didn’t see it but some guy from the DUP did an interview on BBC tonight castigating Arlene Foster over some renewable energy heating scheme which is being abused and wiping hundreds of millions of pounds out of the six county budget.
Can somebody please fire up a summary of this or else I’ll have to devote six hours tomorrow to reading up on it.
I haven’t summoned the energy to read about this case but McGuinness has now called on Foster to step aside while this issue is being investigated. Did you bother to delve into it yourself? Is it dodgy dealing from the DUP like with Project Eagle or ignorance / incompetence?
There was a bit about it on the six one, the whistleblower was filmed on his knees praying before the televised interview…bizarre shite to say the least.
Martin is calling for her to resign immediately.
I haven’t really delved into it. Six county politics seems awful dull now that nobody’s getting killed.
Ugh, Sid.
It’s plenty lively up there, what with the bigotry still going strong, plus the odd sex scandal and all the financial shenanigans.
Don’t worry though, if brexit goes tits up altogether or if the EU falls apart and we end up irrevocably tied to the brits, then it might all start up again and you can have mighty craic on the net sure.
Sinn Féin announced that Martin McGuinness had health problems a week or two ago but did they confirm what his illness is? He looks awfully frail and sick on the news here. I see Fenian princesses Megan Fearon and Michelle O’Neill were front and centre when he was giving his statement on the steps in Stormont this morning. However, I’m a little concerned that our republican women are a little too plump both in Leinster House and Stormont.
Have you caught up on the green fuel subsidy thing in the north? It’s pretty hilarious
Not yet.
I’ll take your bullet points on the matter please.
A previous job I had gives me an insight into this scandal. It was a scheme meant to incentivise heat generated from wood and similar schemes have been successful in the UK. However the nordies set the subsidy level at a point above the input cost of the fuel. What this means is that they’ve actually incentivised people on the scheme to generate as much heat as possible (I.e far more than their actual needs ) just to benefit from this differential.
I haven’t figured out whether it’s incompetence or dodgy dealings yet but someone definitely fucked up
Arlene is a liability.
It’s not long ago that she was involved in another big scandal where they were giving state grants to some UDA thug who had been intimidating other local community workers to the tune of a £1m. Then when it came to light she refused to ask said thug to stand down and disassociate himself from the chairty where he receives quite a sizable salary.
NI introduced a fuel subsidy to incentivise switching to renewable energy, wood pellet burners mainly. The incentive was a copy cat of a UK scheme with one difference they never capped it. The incentive was poorly structured in the first place meaning that if you burned €100 of fuel you got €160 worth of refunds, so as you would, people have been ripping the piss. Buildings with the heating on full blast and the windows open, a farmer who’s gotten a million quid for heating a vast empty chicken shed etc.
This was brought to the governments attention by several people but was ignored. They reckon it’ll cost upwards of £400m.
Arlene Foster actually insisted the scheme stayed open after being presented with the facts.
Sinn Fein reluctant to push for her full resignation as while being polar opposites, they are in government together thanks to their power sharing. They’ve asked she step aside while the investigation gets under way.
brilliant.
Oh and even after they decided to close it they left it open for 3 months. Nearly half of all applications for the scheme came in that 3 months. 98% of all applications were approved meaning it wasn’t exactly vetted very toughly
How was the scheme funded? Local Ni government funds, Westminster or Brussels?
It’s vaguely reminiscent of the old Hoover giveaway.
Fuck me. No wonder the supply of cheap diesel has stopped. This was a far easier , cheaper and legal way to hoArd a few bob
This is what you get when Governments invent incentives to “counteract climate change”. Bureaucratic money pits.
Well done to whoever changed the thread title