Northern Ireland's Assembly has called on First Minister Arlene Foster to stand down pending an independent probe into a green energy scheme that has landed taxpayers with an estimated bill of £400 million.
Set up in November 2012 by Foster when she was the economy minister, the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme was an attempt by the Northern Ireland Executive to help to increase consumption of heat from renewable sources.
It offered financial incentives to farms, businesses and other non-domestic consumers to use biomass boilers that mostly burned wood pellets, as well as solar thermal and heat pumps.
But flaws in setting the scheme's subsidy rate left it open to abuse as claimants could earn more cash the more fuel they burned, with one farmer having made £1m out of renting an empty shed.
The scheme was finally halted early this year, by which time its overall cost had reached £1.18bn.
As economy minister, Arlene Foster was in charge of the department that developed the RHI from its inception in 2012 to 2015. Much of the scrutiny on Mrs Foster has focused on how she responded to concerns raised by a whistleblower during that time.
Martin McGuinness, the Sinn Féin deputy first minister of Northern Ireland, has suggested that Foster should step down while an independent inquiry is held into what has been called the “cash for ash scandal”.
