Thirteen boilers installed on final day before cost controls

The details made public yesterday show how costly every day of delay has been for taxpayers.

Despite officials having known from July 2015 that the scheme was out of control and the minister, Jonathan Bell, having known from at least August that cost controls were needed, no such controls were put in place until November 17.

On that date 13 applications were submitted:

l one boiler for McMullan & O’Donnell Ltd (BT71) who have now claimed £20,146.62,

l three boilers for Michael Kane (BT49) who has claimed £68,112,

l one boiler for Smyth Green Energy Ltd (BT92) which has claimed £30,364,

l one boiler for Wesley Hamilton on behalf of Hamilton Contracts (BT80) who has claimed £29,649,

l one boiler for Bee Bee Farms Ltd (BT63) which has claimed £23,167,

l one boiler for Declan And Edward Sean McCloskey (BT44) who have claimed £20,554,

l one boiler for Gormley Engineering Works Ltd (BT70) who have claimed £11,041,

l one boiler for John Crawford (BT77) who has claimed £2,362,

l one boiler for Kyle Smyth (BT70) who has claimed £8,276, and

l one boiler for AJ Plumbing Supplies (BT32) which has claimed £3,872.

One man was in the unique position of benefiting from both the delay to implement cost controls in late 2015 and then the delay to close the scheme entirely the following February.

Shane Muckian, on behalf of HS Heating (BT35), has been paid £19,148 for a boiler installed on November 17. Mr Muckian had installed his first boiler seven months earlier.

Then, in February 2016 – when even with cost controls the scheme was proving financially unsustainable to Stormont – Mr Muckian installed a further five boilers just days before the scheme was shut.

Every one of those boilers was installed after February 15 – beyond the point at which the scheme had been meant to have been closed but was kept open for the further fortnight.

The list states that Mr Muckian applied to the scheme for his final boilers on February 27 and 28 – a Saturday and Sunday – just before the scheme was shut on the Monday.

However, two factors strongly suggest that Mr Muckian was not primarily motivated by making money – only one of his boilers was the most lucrative 99kwh category and the payments are considerably less than for many other claimants.

In total, he has been paid £72,872 for his seven boilers.