Ian Paisley ‘lobbied’ Ofgem over RHI application

DUP MP Ian Paisley Jr lobbied a senior Ofgem official to accept an application for lucrative subsidies under Northern Ireland’s renewable heat incentive (RHI) even through it had missed a key deadline, a public inquiry has been informed.

The inquiry into allegations of fraudulent overspending on the RHI, which triggered the collapse of the province’s power sharing administration nearly a year ago, heard evidence earlier this week from Teri Clifton, the regulator’s head of operations for the scheme.

In a written submission to the inquiry, she writes that she took a call in November 2015 from Mark Compston of Action Renewables, who was handling an RHI application for the McNaughton family.

Compston was lobbying Ofgem to have the application accepted at the higher tariff even though it had been submitted after the rate had been cut, which he blamed on an IT problem at the regulator.

Clifton was aware that Compston was “unhappy” that she would not accept the applications for the higher tariff rate.

In the submission, she expresses surprise that North Antrim MP Paisley was also participating in the call.

“Without prior warning, I found myself on a speaker phone with the applicants, representatives from Action Renewables, Moy Park and Ian Paisley Jr.

“They all wanted me to accept the case onto the scheme prior to the tariff change date, as the applicants were going to lose a significant amount of money.”

Under cross-examination at the RHI inquiry, which commenced in October, Clifton described Paisley’s involvement as “very intimidating”, according to a BBC report.

“I don’t think it was intentionally intimidating, I think the intention was to catch me off guard and to make my decision look like the wrong one in front of that crowd of people.”