McBride - Burned: the inside story of the cash-for-ash scandal and Northern Irelands secretive new elite

A monumental work of solid reportage, measured, elegant and thorough. This is a story of political ineptitude and waste. That Stormont sought to use a scheme for saving the environment as an opportunity for the lavish squandering of money and energy speaks of ignorance and cynicism. Sam McBride, throughout this story, has been one of the journalists who stayed with it and explained it best through his articles and broadcasts. Now that work coalesces into an exemplary work of journalism. If politicians had maintained their standards with a similar responsibility, this book would not have needed to be written.

Malachi ODoherty, journalist and author

The RHI scandal played a significant role in bringing Northern Irelands experiment in devolution to its knees. Future historians will ask how did this happen? Sam McBrides book will be their first port of call. He has been at the heart of the journalistic coverage of this crisis and it shows in every page.

Lord Bew, historian and Emeritus Professor of Irish politics at Queens University, Belfast

This is one of the most important books in the history of Northern Ireland. To devastating effect, it sets out the path of RHI, a scandal that highlights profound problems with how we are governed in the 21st century.

Ben Lowry, deputy editor, News Letter

Superbly researched and explained with clarity and precision, Burned tells the tale of a grossly mismanaged green energy scheme which brought down Northern Irelands power sharing government, tarnishing its internationally-acclaimed reputation for partnership and peace-making. The sorry saga of incompetence, groupthink, buck-passing and failure to pay heed to warnings unfolds like a slow motion car crash. Sam McBrides book should be required reading for those working in the public and private sectors far beyond Northern Ireland as a manual on how not to run major projects and how not to govern a society.

Mark Devenport, political journalist and broadcaster

This book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how the Stormont institutions were brought down by a scandal of enormous proportions. It clearly, coldly and comprehensively sets out a series of astonishing events involving incredible sums of public money and deserves to be studied by all those interested in our political process.

Noel Doran, editor, The Irish News

As Brexit dominates politics in Westminster and Dublin, Sam McBrides lucid and compelling account of the nightmarish reality of devolution in Northern Ireland shows us that there will be no easy solutions in Belfast. This triumph of investigative journalism from one of the UKs most important reporters spares nobody. Anybody who wishes to understand how the DUP and Sinn Fins great experiment failed should read it not that they will want you to.

Patrick Maguire, political correspondent, New Statesman

An intriguing forensic examination of the RHI scandal which brought down Stormont. It should be an essential textbook for politicians , advisers and the civil service. Sam McBrides book clearly points out this must never happen again if faith in politics is to be restored.

Ken Reid, UTV Political Editor

Unlike the RHI legislation she introduced, I hope Arlene Foster actually reads this. Sam McBride brilliantly untangles the facts about RHI to reveal a jaw-dropping and occasionally hilarious omnishambles. The author has taken the fiendishly complex RHI scandal and made it both comprehensible and shocking. If I were a civil servant, or a DUP spad or worked at Moy Park I would demand that all copies of this book were burnt in a 99kw wood pellet boiler.

Tim McGarry, comedian

One of Belfasts most authoritative journalists has produced a fascinating and detailed account of one of the citys most controversial episodes.

David McKittrick, journalist and author

One of the most important books on Northern Ireland politics since the Good Friday Agreement; and certainly the most important on the Assembly and the function and dysfunction of devolution. Disturbingly revelatory.

Alex Kane, columnist and commentator

BURNED

BURNED

THE INSIDE STORY OF THE CASH-FOR-ASH SCANDAL AND NORTHERN IRELANDS SECRETIVE NEW ELITE

SAM M c BRIDE

First published in 2019 by

Merrion Press

An imprint of Irish Academic Press

10 Georges Street

Newbridge

Co. Kildare

Ireland

www.merrionpress.ie

Sam McBride, 2019

9781785372698 (Paper)

9781785372704 (Kindle)

9781785372711 (Epub)

9781785372728 (PDF)

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

An entry can be found on request

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

An entry can be found on request

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved alone, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

Typeset in Minion Pro 11/15 pt

CONTENTS

For Anna, Kate and Patrick, without whose generous patience this would not exist, and for my parents whose labours freed me to dig with a pen, rather than the spade of my forebears.

AUTHORS NOTE

S ome of the facts in this book will seem so lavishly far-fetched that I feel it necessary to assure the reader that none of this is fictitious. I have sought to lay out the evidence so that the reader can form their own view of not just what really happened but, crucially, why. While much of what happened is factual, the reason that it happened is less straightforward. I have attempted to leave it to readers to decide why events turned out as they did and in order to do so I have sought to incorporate the views of all the key individuals in an effort to explain even if it does not excuse why they acted as they did.

What follows draws heavily on the tens of thousands of pages of evidence published by Sir Patrick Coghlins public inquiry into the scandal, which involved remarkable work by a small team without whose work this book would be missing multiple key sections. Much of that evidence has never before been reported. Frequently, I have specified that a piece of evidence emerged in written or oral evidence to the inquiry. For stylistic reasons, on other occasions I have not made this explicit even where I am reporting what transpired at the inquiry or in its voluminous evidence bundles.

Unless otherwise referred to, all references to RHI refer to the non-domestic Northern Ireland RHI.

For simplicity, I have referred to the Department of Finance throughout even though its name was the Department of Finance and Personnel until May 2016.

My gratitude goes to the scores of sources who have fed through information on an unattributable basis, some of whom continue to hold senior positions and whose actions are at some risk to their own positions. Without them, this book would be shorter and far less complete.

PREFACE

I t was a Tuesday night three weeks before Christmas in 2016 and I was tired after a long day covering Stormont for the News Letter . That afternoon there had been a debate in which almost half of Assembly members from the opposition parties were incredulous that public cash was going to an alleged UDA (Ulster Defence Assocation) boss, while the rest of MLAs (Members of the Legislative Party), from the DUP (Democratic Unionist Party) and Sinn Fin, were incredulous that the issue was even being raised. But all of that along with the Stormont edifice within which Northern Irelands politics had been contained for almost a decade was to be blown away by a scandal triggered that night by a BBC Spotlight documentary on something called the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI).