Speaking in an interview with the BBC on Monday, First Minister Foster said: “What we are going to do is start 100% inspections of renewable heat installations. We need to look at renewable heat installations to make sure that they are doing what they are supposed to be doing.”

She also said that all claimants under the RHI would be contacted by the Department for the Economy to give consent for their name to be made public.

“I would be keen for all of the names to be published in respect of the scheme,” she said. The First Minister added that permission is needed for a claimant’s name to be made public in line with data protection laws.

Arlene Foster was the Enterprise Minister responsible for the scheme when it opened in 2012. An NI Audit Office report states that there are 2,128 non-domestic boilers in NI that are accredited under RHI for a tariff to be paid for producing renewable heat.

There was large uptake of the scheme from the poultry industry for heating houses. It remains unclear what evidence could be made available to support potential claims of non-compliance.

Overspend

The scheme closed to applicants in February after a significant overspend emerged. Current estimates put the cost of RHI over 20 years at £1.18bn, with around £405m of this to be covered by the NI Executive.

Last week, Economy Minister Simon Hamilton said that proposals are being developed by officials in the Department for the Economy to allow changes to be made to RHI to reduce the cost of the scheme to the NI Executive.

“We are now constructing a cost-control mechanism and that will go out to public consultation,” Arlene Foster told the BBC on Monday.

Read more

Full coverage: RHI