Where are those involved in RHI now? Former spad now back on the farm, while others promoted

Arlene Foster

Then: The minister who set up RHI, then Finance Minister at the point when it ran out of control.

Now: Remains as DUP leader and now back as First Minister after a three-year absence after devolution collapsed when Sinn Féin demanded she temporarily step aside as First Minister and she refused.

Andrew Crawford

Then: Foster’s special adviser (spad) throughout her time as DETI minister and Finance Minister.

Now: After resigning as a spad at the height of the cash for ash scandal, he was re-employed by the DUP to advise on its Brexit policy. Now out of that role, he is back working as a farmer in Co Tyrone.

David Sterling

Then: The most senior civil servant in Arlene Foster’s department when RHI was set up, he admitted to the inquiry that often embarrassing details were deliberately not written down.

Now: Several months after the RHI scandal erupted, Sterling was promoted to Head of the NI Civil Service. At the end of last year he announced that he would be retiring in August.

Jonathan Bell

Then: Foster’s successor as minister responsible for the scheme, in post as RHI fell apart and was shut.

Now: Back to work as a senior social worker, sighted in custody suites and courts. Has kept an exceptionally low profile since failing to be elected as an independent in Strangford in March 2017.

Tim Cairns

Then: Bell’s spad who admits he tried to delay RHI being reined in, but he said on the orders of others in the DUP.

Now: Director for Policy and Nations at the Community Transport Association and a regular political commentator on the BBC.

Stephen Brimstone

Then: DUP spad to First Minister Arlene Foster. Removed a domestic biomass boiler to install a non-domestic boiler in his garage – which heated his home, allowing him to claim RHI.

Now: After quitting the month before the scandal erupted to pursue unspecified private sector work, he told the inquiry he was working as a self-employed IT consultant and is listed online as an IOT Solutions Provider at IT company Procul-iot.

Fiona Hepper

Then: Head of DETI’s energy division when RHI was being set up and for its first year. Admitted that some of her ministerial submissions to Arlene Foster had been misleading.

Now: She has since been promoted and is now deputy secretary - one rung beneath the most senior civil servant - in the Department of Education.

Peter Hutchinson

Then: The mid-ranking DETI official under Hepper most involved in designing and overseeing RHI until he left in May 2014.

Now: As of last year, Hutchinson was a senior member of the Department for Education’s transformation team.

Seamus Hughes

Then: Immediately beneath Wightman in DETI’s energy division, having succeeded Hutchinson in June 2014.

Now: Believed to still be working in the Department for the Economy, although not working on RHI, and to have been promoted.

Timothy Johnston

Then: Key special adviser to successive DUP First Ministers and the party’s most powerful backroom figure.

Now: No longer a spad, but still one of those running the DUP from a permanent and powerful chief executive role.

Andrew McCormick

Then: As permanent secretary, DETI’s top oficial from July 2014, arriving just months before RHI ran out of control and serving under both Arlene Foster and Jonathan Bell.

Now: In early 2018, McCormick took up the new post of Director General, International Relations, which included heading up Northern Ireland’s Brexit preparations. He remains in post.

Chris Stewart

Then: From August 2014, directly beneath McCormick as deputy secretary (head of policy group) at DETI.

Now: Head of the Programme for Government team in Stormont Castle.

John Mills

Then: Succeeded Fiona Hepper as DETI’s head of energy division in January 2014. In post as the scheme ran disastrously out of control.

Now: Head of environmental policy at DAERA.

Stuart Wightman.

Then: Worked under Mills, having replaced McCutcheon as head of energy division’s energy efficiency branch in June 2014, about eight months before it began to run out of control.

Now: Living with Water Programme Manager in the Department for Infrastructure.

Janette O’Hagan

Then: A businesswoman who saw RHI’s perverse incentive and repeatedly tried to warn DETI.

Now: Continuing to run her energy efficiency business, Heatboss.

Máirtín Ó Muilleoir

Then: The Sinn Féin Finance Minister who set up the public inquiry and who was revealed by that inquiry to have privately taken credit for delaying closure of RHI.

Now: Having been a rising star in Sinn Fein, Ó Muilleoir suddenly quit politics in January. Three months earlier the longstanding owner of the Andersonstown News put its parent company up for sale.

Simon Hamilton

Then: The DUP minister in charge of the scheme (after it had been shut to new entrants) when the scandal erupted in late 2016. He admitted knowledge of leaking documents to seemingly shift some blame to civil servants.

Now: He quit politics last year and is now chief executive of Belfast Chamber of Trade and Commerce.

John Robinsion

Then: Timothy Johnston’s brother-in-law and the spad to Hamilton. He admitted leaking documents in an attempt to seemingly shift some blame to civil servants.

Now: Back to his former job as the DUP’s director of communications, the party’s chief spin doctor.

Janet McCollum

Then: Moy Park’s chief executive from 2014, just before the company encouraged its farmers to pile into the scheme in huge numbers.

Now: She left Moy Park in May 2018, half way through the RHI Inquiry’s public hearings, and is now a non-executive director of multiple big food companies including Glanbia, Mash Direct, Foyle Food Group and the agri-business W&R Barnett Ltd.