PRESSURE is mounting on First Minister Arlene Foster over her role in a deeply flawed green energy initiative which is costing Stormont tens of millions of pounds.
The DUP leader was minister at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (Deti) when the Renewable Heat Incentive was launched in 2012 but despite problems being flagged up by a whistleblower, it continued to operate until shut down earlier this year.
Unlike a corresponding renewable energy scheme in Britain, Deti officials failed to impose a cap on the subsidy paid to businesses and farmers, which meant many RHI claimants simply burnt fuel to make money.
An Audit Office report in July forecast that paying for the botched scheme could cost the Stormont executive up to £1.2bn over the next 20 years.
Mrs Foster, who is currently in China, has previously refused to accept responsibility for the RHI's failings on her watch.
In an interview in October with The Irish News the first minister said the scheme was "developed by officials in a way that shouldn't have been developed by officials".
When it was highlighted that they were her officials in her department, the DUP leader said: "I hope you're not suggesting I get to see every single jot and tittle that goes on in every ministerial department.
"Ministers do not get to see that level of detail as you well know. We get to see the overall policy in terms of those renewable schemes."
There were calls from Stormont's opposition for Mrs Foster to resign but Sinn Féin has instead called on the first minister to "come forward to provide a full account and set the public record straight on this issue".
Economy committee chairman Conor Murphy said the scheme was flawed from its inception and what happened was an "unacceptable dereliction of responsibility".
"It beggars belief internal reporting systems were so flawed that key issues were not identified and addressed within the department despite warnings having being raised about the scheme," he said.
"There are also real concerns that there may well have been aggressive exploitation of this scheme for commercial profit and gain – the public, the assembly and the executive all need to know what happened here."
Mr Murphy said the committee would examine the Public Accounts Committee's (RHI) report when it had concluded its current investigation and would decide whether to pursue the matter further.
The DUP declined to provide The Irish News with the same statement issued to the BBC yesterday morning. Instead, the party offered a statement from Alastair Ross, who noted how the Ulster Unionists and SDLP voted against the closure of the RHI in February.
"The failings of the RHI scheme have been have been acknowledged as shocking," he said. "It is a matter of extreme regret to everyone involved in government."
In an interview with UTV, Ms Foster said she would not be resigning.
Mrs Foster, who was a minister when a whistleblower raised concerns about the scheme, she had done "all that was appropriate in the circumstances".
UUP leader Mike Nesbitt said the mismanagement of the RHI had led to the "squandering of hundreds of millions of pounds" and he called for the first minister to consider her position.
"This happened on Arlene Foster’s watch in the then Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment – to date, her only defence is that she cannot be across ‘every jot and tittle’ of her department’s operations, but this is no jot or tittle," he said in reference to The Irish News interview.
"This is the biggest financial foul-up in the history of the country. We will be paying for this for the next twenty years so there are children not yet born who will become mothers and fathers before this debt is paid off."
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood SDLP Leader Colum Eastwood said Mrs Foster should ignore Stormont convention and volunteer to appear before the PAC.
"The unwritten convention which allows ministers to duck tough questions should be no impediment to transparency on this issue and the first minister cannot use it as a shield to deflect legitimate public interest scrutiny," he said.
