FORMER DUP special adviser Andrew Crawford effectively made a "sales pitch" for chicken producer Moy Park during the crisis into the botched Renewable Heat Incentive scheme, it has been suggested.
An inquiry into the scheme heard yesterday that Dr Crawford, an ex-adviser to then finance minister Arlene Foster, suggested changing a plan in July 2015 to introduce cost controls.
Read more:
- RHI Live: Andrew Crawford gives evidence, Day 2
- RHI Live: Andrew Crawfod gives evidence, Day 1
The former Spad's brother James and cousins Richard and John Crawford were all chicken producers for Moy Park and had 11 boilers, funded under the RHI scheme, between them.
The RHI scheme, which was designed to encourage people to use more eco-friendly technology, effectively paid users for burning fuel. It eventually closed to new applicants in February 2016.
Dr Crawford's plan, which was never approved, would have increased the threshold of hours that a claimant could run their biomass boiler for before RHI payments were reduced.
The enterprise department wanted to have the same 1,314-hour threshold as a similar RHI scheme in Britain but Dr Crawford wanted a 3,000-hour threshold.
In one of the bluntest exchanges in the inquiry so far, inquiry chairman Sir Patrick Coghlin told Dr Crawford what he had proposed was "a sales pitch for Moy Park".
He added: "That's what Moy Park need (for their producers), that's what they told you... You're the man with the relations, all of whom worked for Moy Park".
Dr Crawford denied this and suggested his plan aimed to curb the possibility of a spike in applications and potential abuse of the scheme.
He resigned as a DUP special adviser in January 2017 amid claims he had delayed the introduction of cost controls - a claim he strongly denies.
During yesterday's hearing, Dr Crawford's links to Moy Park were probed further.
He admitted he was "likely" to have forwarded an email he received from hotelier Howard Hastings, which included a warning about potential abuse of the scheme, to Moy Park executive David Mark.
Papers provided to the inquiry showed Mr Mark shared the email with other Moy Park officials and said he had got it from "a contact in government".
Dr Crawford said it was likely he was the contact.
"I'm accepting it's likely it came from myself," he said.
He said if he had forwarded on the email to Mr Mark, he would have expected that if any Moy Park growers were suspected of abuse of the RHI scheme that the company would "bring it into line".
The inquiry heard the original email cannot be found and Moy Park could not discover the forwarded email.
Dr Crawford never sent on the email from Mr Hastings to senior civil servants.
He later rejected a suggestion he tipped off Moy Park in January 2016 that the RHI scheme was due to close - weeks before the official announcement was made.
"I believe that someone else made them aware of the information," he said.
He agreed he had met Moy Park executives, along with then finance minister Mervyn Storey, in January 2016 but insisted he would not have told them of the scheme's planned closure because "I don't believe at that stage I had any information the scheme was closing".
The following month, Dr Crawford removed a reference to the 'poultry industry' in a document seeking the closure of the scheme.
Dr Crawford said he did so because chicken producers were not the only people to benefit from the RHI scheme.
"I was just concerned at this stage that singling out the poultry industry was unfair when it was clear there were other areas who were investing in biomass," he said.
However, Sir Patrick replied: "The major responsibility for the spike was the poultry industry and Moy Park in particular... That was true. Why remove a true fact?"
Panel member Dame Una O'Brien said the document was "very, very, very important".
"This strikes me as withholding information from the First and deputy First Ministers that they were entitled to see," she said.
Read more:
- Moy Park executive ‘has no memory' of RHI talks
- Moy Park business decisions fuelled demand for botched RHI scheme, inquiry told
- DUP spad Andrew Crawford provided Moy Park with 'inside information'
- Poultry giant Moy Park consulted on RHI changes months before cost controls announced, senior Ofgem official claims
