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RHI inquiry: Renewables firm 'actively misled' charities watchdog

Michael Doran appearing at the RHI inquiry
Michael Doran appearing at the RHI inquiry Michael Doran appearing at the RHI inquiry

A RENEWABLES organisation paid to process RHI applications has been accused of "misleading" a charities watchdog about its awareness of serious flaws in the scheme.

Action Renewables (AR) was found to be operating "within charity law" by the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland following a probe over concerns about comments made to The Irish News.

Michael Doran, AR's managing director, had said it would have been "ethically improper" for it to relay concerns about RHI to the government due to its applications to the scheme on behalf of clients.

Explaining its conclusion last year, the Charity Commission said it met with AR trustees who "stated that they were not aware of anything being wrong with the scheme when it was in operation".

It also found no information suggesting AR breached its stated objectives such as "promoting good environmental practice" and "energy efficiency".

But the RHI inquiry yesterday heard how AR was aware from an early stage of the scheme's lack of cost controls to prevent it being exploited for profit.

Inquiry counsel Donal Lunny said AR was "aware of flaws in the scheme throughout" and did not inform the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (Deti).

Mr Lunny told Mr Doran: "Either the Charity Commission have made some very bad mistakes in their investigation or what they were being told at that point by your organisation – you're one of the people who spoke to them – is very different to what you're now telling the inquiry."

Read more:

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  • Renewable energy charity paid to process a quarter of all RHI applications
  • 'Unacceptable' that renewable energy charity did not relay RHI concerns

Addressing Mr Doran, inquiry chair Sir Patrick Coghlin added: "It seems to me, given what you've said today, the inescapable inference is you were misleading the charity commissioners. Have you any response to that?"

Mr Doran said: "It would appear from this document, yes."

In a statement following the hearing, the Charity Commission said it will "carefully consider" the evidence provided to the inquiry.

"For information, it is an offence under section 25 of the Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2008 to knowingly or recklessly supply the commission with information which is false or misleading," a spokeswoman added.

AR was set up by Deti in 2003 but moved into the private sector from 2011.

The Belfast-based firm earned hundreds of thousands of pounds by advising on around a quarter of RHI applications.

It also promoted the scheme and undertook technical consultant reports on RHI for Invest NI clients.

The inquiry looked at one AR report in 2014 which pointed out how "significant returns" could be earned through RHI if a boiler was "operated longer than necessary", saying the "philosophy is not wrong".

Mr Doran blamed the wording on carelessness, and accepted the firm "should not have written that".

Earlier, the inquiry asked Mr Doran about AR's response to a Stormont committee in summer 2012 when it was examining the RHI scheme proposed by Deti.

The firm raised some concerns, but did not raise the issue of pellet costs being lower than the subsidies or the lack of tiering.

Asked why these problems were not raised, Mr Doran said Deti had intended annual reviews and audits which should have led to the introduction of tiered tariffs.

"I had a balanced decision to make, which was whether to allow a scheme to go ahead, a scheme which wasn't perfect, or to put the brakes on the scheme and maybe hold it up for another year or two," he said.

But he acknowledged that AR did not raise concerns with Deti once the scheme got under way.

Mr Doran was also questioned about his written statement making only one brief reference to the dozens of reports for Invest NI clients.

He accepted the inquiry barrister's suggestion that his statement was "substantially misleading", but said it was not the intention.

The inquiry heard that more than 2,600 pages of documentation from AR were only provided to the inquiry earlier this week.

Mr Doran apologised and said there was a lack of diligence when AR was preparing the witness statement.

Launched in 2012, the non-domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) was designed to encourage businesses to switch from burning fossil fuels to more sustainable alternatives.

But the subsidies were worth more than the cost of wood pellets, encouraging firms to 'burn to earn'.

Delays in introducing cost controls brought a spike in applications and pushed the multi-million-pound government scheme hugely over budget.