FORMER DUP special adviser Stephen Brimstone was at a high level Stormont meeting where RHI cost controls were discussed despite Arlene Foster knowing he was an applicant to the botched scheme.
The February 2016 meeting, where the impending closure of RHI topped the agenda, was attended by the DUP leader, the then Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness and senior civil servants.
Mr Brimstone told the RHI inquiry that he had informed the newly-appointed DUP leader about his RHI boiler the previous month when he had become her aide.
"She just thanked me for telling her, I think she asked me was everything OK with it? I would have said yes, in my belief everything is OK with the application, and that was the end of the matter," he said.
The former spad said he did not inform the first minister in writing because it was not how things were done.
Mr Brimstone, who resigned as a spad in November 2016, said he has no memory of the high level meeting earlier that year but acknowledges that he should not have taken part in the discussions around RHI.
On Tuesday, Mrs Foster said that "it would've been better if he'd stepped out".
Inquiry chairman Sir Patrick Coghlin said not stepping out of the meeting raised questions over how genuine the former spad had been in telling Mrs Foster about his involvement with RHI.
"You tell the first minister you have an interest and having done that, you then continue to involved, and that can play back on the genuineness of your declaration, you are just doing it for form... you may shake your head and so on, but that is the sort of perspective that someone might adopt," the chairman said.
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Mr Brimstone also conceded that taking part in previous discussions about RHI with fellow spads Timothy Cairns and Andrew Crawford after he had submitted his application to the scheme was a conflict of interest.
The July 2015 conversation, at which Mr Brimstone was asked for advice about cost controls on the scheme, was followed by a series of emails that included information about the RHI, but again the DUP spad did not flag up a conflict of interest. He told the inquiry it was possible the emails had been "deleted on receipt" and that he did not share the information with anybody else.
Mr Brimstone said he had been "pedantic" about consulting with department permanent secretaries whether, for example, an invitation to an event, might be a conflict of interest.
The former spad to Nelson McCausland during the Red Sky scandal installed a biomass boiler at a shed beside his Co Antrim home and applied for the RHI in 2015. He used the boiler to heat his nearby home.
The inquiry also heard of two complaints about Mr Brimstone's RHI installation, with an anonymous complainant alleging he was involved in "total fraud".
The front page of the subsequent auditor's report stated that there was "no evidence" that the building in which the boiler was housed was being used for agricultural use, as had been claimed in the RHI application.
However, both complaints were investigated and on each occasion the government regulator for gas and electricity markets (Ofgem) found no compliance issues
It emerged that Mr Brimstone previously had a flock number, which is required in order to keep sheep, but had archived it 2009.
The inquiry heard he reactivated the number in January 2017, saying his children had taken a interest in sheep.
