Sir Patrick Coghlin was paid less to chair RHI Inquiry than Stormont department told the public

Earlier this month this newspaper asked the Department of Finance how much the panel members and barristers for the inquiry were each paid.

The department responded by stating that “the RHI Inquiry panel members were paid a per diem rate. The costs related to each is below...” and listed that Sir Patrick had been paid a total of £648,626 at a rate of £1,005 a day.

However, when the News Letter asked how this rate had been calculated, given that Sir Patrick is a retired Court of Appeal judge and the figure given for him was higher than the daily rate for a Court of Appeal judge (£827), the department said that his pay “was based upon the rate for a Lord Justice of Appeal uplifted to cover Employers National Insurance”.

However, when the department was asked why it was paying National Insurance for a pensioner, and why, if that was necessary, it was giving the money to Sir Patrick rather than directly to HMRC, it backtracked and said that the figures which it had listed had not in fact all gone to Sir Patrick.

It said that “once an individual reaches the state pension age they stop paying Class 1 primary National Insurance contributions” but an employer “must continue to pay Class 1 secondary contributions in the normal way”.

It said that “the National Insurance contributions were not paid directly to Sir Patrick, they were paid to HMRC” but that it had given the total figure “to present the full cost of the inquiry to the department”.

When the News Letter put it to the department that its initial figures had been misleading, and asked if the pay for any of the other senior members of the inquiry team had not fully gone to them, the department then said that the figure for Dame Una O’Brien’s pay did not reflect what she had actually got.

It also said that the daily rates it had published – showing Sir Patrick got £1,005 a day and Dame Una got £850 a day – were accurate, even though the department had explained Sir Patrick’s daily rate being higher than a Court of Appeal judge’s salary on the basis that it was “uplifted” to include National Insurance.

It said that Sir Patrick and Dame Una were employed by the department meaning the Department had to pay National Insurance contributions on top of their daily rate but “Dr Keith MacLean, David Scoffield, Donal Lunny and Joseph Aiken were all employed by the RHI Inquiry and their costs do not include National Insurance contributions or other payments”.

The department said that it paid £69,364 in National Insurance contributions for Sir Patrick, meaning that he was paid £579,262 rather than the £648,626 figure initially released.

The department said that it paid £32,048 as National Insurance for Dame Una, meaning that she was paid £295,775 rather than the £327,823 initially quoted.

However, confusingly, the department said that Sir Patrick’s actual pay (excluding National Insurance) was £1,005 an hour. But when asked why his pay was set at that rate, the department said that it was “based upon the rate for a Lord Justice of Appeal, uplifted to cover Employers National Insurance” – even though the national insurance contributions would be on top of, rather than part of, his salary.

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