Opinion

William Scholes: 'Accountable but not responsible' the perfect RHI T-shirt slogan

William Scholes

William Scholes

William has worked at The Irish News since 2002. His areas of interest include religion and motoring.

Sir Patrick Coghlin, chairman of the RHI inquiry, will deliver his report today. Picture by Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker
Sir Patrick Coghlin, chairman of the RHI inquiry, will deliver his report today. Picture by Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Sir Patrick Coghlin, chairman of the RHI inquiry, will deliver his report today. Picture by Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

WITH hand-washing all the rage, it's fitting that attention will today fall on Stormont, arguably the greatest hand-washing operation since Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea.

One of the outstanding features of the evidence heard by the public inquiry into the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme was that almost no-one felt they were to blame for anything that had happened.

Arlene Foster's claim that she was "accountable but not responsible" for elements of the debacle, including the conduct of her almost comically unconvincing special adviser Andrew Crawford, could be a T-shirt slogan to sum-up this buck-passing instinct.

The DUP leader wasn't alone, of course. You didn't have to follow the inquiry that closely to realise that ministers, civil servants, Spads and various other hangers-on were expert in washing the stain of responsibility from their hands.

We will find out what the inquiry made of this amateurish nonsense - not much, I imagine - when its highly effective chairman Sir Patrick Coghlin publishes his report this afternoon.

This has regularly been described as 'much anticipated'.

That's certainly the case among journalists and the political class, many of whom live in an echo chamber, as well as lawyers and some involved in agriculture and business.

It's also true to say that lots of people geeked out over the gory details that emerged during the inquiry, which at times became the political equivalent of one of those television documentaries that shows you exactly what goes into your favourite sausages.

However, I wonder if, as far as the general public is concerned, it is somewhat overstating things to say that everyone has been on tenterhooks waiting for the RHI report; having already seen how sausages are made, most people don't want to be reminded and have to watch the whole grim process all over again.

Before RHI, anyone with even a passing interest in Northern Ireland politics could easily identify the broad outline of Stormont's epic and terminal dysfunction.

One of the inquiry's achievements was to colour in the whole preposterous edifice, adding detail and texture to how Stormont operated under the DUP and Sinn Féin.

People will have already drawn their own conclusions from what they heard during the inquiry.

That's one reason why, no matter how firmly worded and direct Sir Patrick's criticisms are this afternoon, it is highly unlikely to make a great deal of difference to the public.

They've already shrugged their shoulders and carried on, turning their attention to more important things like coronavirus.

That will have been 'baked in' to the thinking of the DUP and Sinn Féin when they decided to go back into power-sharing at Stormont in January.

Depending on how you look at things, this was either deeply embarrassing or highly magnanimous on the part of Sinn Féin.

Martin McGuinness, after all, had blamed his decision to pull down Stormont in January 2017 on Mrs Foster's refusal to step aside as first minister so that her role in RHI could be investigated; this in itself was, he said, an example of the DUP arrogance that Sinn Féin also wanted to call out.

Sinn Féin also said that it wouldn't go back into government with the DUP if Mrs Foster returned as first minister.

That all seems to have been forgotten - and forgiven? - and you can be sure that senior Sinn Féin figures won't be leading the charge for Mrs Foster to resign even if she comes in for trenchant criticism.

For her part, Mrs Foster will do her best to appear apologetic and perhaps even chastened - no mean achievement for a politician whose default mode is tin-eared belligerence.

Another reason not to get too carried away with the report is to consider who is in charge of the apparatus that will inevitably have to implement whatever recommendations Sir Patrick makes - the same Pontius Pilates who got us here in the first place.