SIMON Hamilton was the third former DUP minister to appear before the RHI inquiry. None has covered themselves in glory.
Arlene Foster was exposed for her failure to be across her ministerial brief, while Jonathan Bell confirmed the widely held suspicion that his place in the executive was secured through his close ties to Peter Robinson, rather than any natural aptitude for the economy minister's role.
Mr Hamilton's involvement with RHI was not as significant as his two predecessors.
The Strangford MLA had the economy portfolio for just ten months up to last March's collapse of the executive and took up his post after the botched scheme had been closed to new entrants.
His role was to counter the firestorm that flared at the end of 2016 as public outcry over RHI reached fever pitch.
The former DUP minister voiced regret that he had not put enough pressure on officials to find ways to limit outlay on the botched scheme.
The same civil servants who had overseen the RHI as it ran out of control presented him with a "flawed" and "shoddy" report on how to redress its financial consequences, he said.
While Mr Hamilton is unlikely to figure extensively in the inquiry's final report, his role in leaking emails to the media and his own permanent secretary in an effort to deflect attention from the DUP will likely be remembered as a career low point.
The scale of his failings relative to others are secondary but nevertheless they feed into the cumulative narrative which exposes the DUP's propensity to act in the party interests rather than the public's.
Sinn Féin's Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, Mr Hamilton's executive counterpart in the weeks before the devolved institutions imploded, painted a picture of deteriorating relations between Stormont's two biggest parties precipitated by RHI.
The two ministers' officials also retreated into their respective silos.
The South Belfast MLA defended his role in extending the RHI for an additional fortnight when a member of Stormont's economy scrutiny committee, highlighting with some justification that he and fellow MLAs weren't given a complete picture.
Responding to an email that shows him claiming credit for the delay, Mr Ó Muilleoir noted that he wouldn't be the first politician to claim success for something that benefited constituents.
Revelations that when finance minister he consulted with members of the Sinn Féin ard comhairle will undoubtedly raise eyebrows and prompt predictable outrage.
However, in common with Mr Hamilton's evidence, the revelations are peripheral to the substantive thrust of the inquiry and not especially damning. That said, they are unlikely to leave many people pining for the lost days of devolution.
