Details of an alternative to the flawed Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme, which would have saved the public purse £200 million, were never shared with a Stormont scrutiny committee, it has been claimed.

Patsy McGlone, the former chairman of Stormont’s Enterprise Trade and Investment (ETI) Committee – which was tasked with scrutinising proposed legislation for the RHI scheme – said government officials never advised members about the less costly option.

The SDLP MLA said on Wednesday that had the committee been told about the cheaper scheme it would have “triggered questions”.

Mr McGlone was giving evidence to the public inquiry into the RHI scandal, which led to the collapse of the powersharing executive 12 months ago.

He is the first elected representative to give evidence to the probe.

The inquiry heard that the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI), whose minister at the time was DUP leader Arlene Foster, was aware of a green energy option that would have delivered the same amount of renewable heat, but for £200 million less than the preferred RHI scheme.

However, the option, called the Challenge Fund, was not the preferred choice because it would have been difficult securing the money in the short term for it.

Mr McGlone said he was “very surprised” details of the cheaper option had not been presented to the committee.

“It is probably one of a number of items I’m very surprised about in how this whole scheme has been handled and managed,” said Mr McGlone.

He added: “Savings of that magnitude, particularly at times when budgets are being constrained, that certainly would have triggered a reaction from the committee. It would have triggered questions. I have no doubt about it.

“Those levels of savings were not presented.”

The Mid Ulster MLA said the ETI Committee had relied upon the “professionalism and integrity” of DETI officials for information about the proposed RHI scheme.

  • Ministers set up the RHI inquiry to investigate the energy scheme as its costs rocketed.
  • The project aimed to subsidise the cost of claimants' fuel for running new renewable heating systems.
  • The fuel cost less than the subsidy claimants received, meaning users could earn more money by burning more fuel.
  • A recent estimate put the projected overspend on the project at £700 million over a 20 year period if measures to control the cost are not implemented.

“The scheme was being referred to by both the officials and the minister as successful,” he said.

Mr McGlone said that at the time the committee was asked to consider legislation for the RHI scheme he had no concerns.

However, he added: “Looking back now (on the evidence presented to the inquiry) I have multiple concerns. It appears internal management was completely askew.”

The inquiry was told that green energy group Action Renewables had raised concern with DETI officials that the scheme was potentially open to exploitation and suggested the insertion of an additional band of funding.

When asked what the committee did about the warning Mr McGlone replied: “I can’t say what the committee did at the time about it.”

He added that “retrospectively” the advice from Action Renewables should have set off warning bells.

Mr McGlone also said he could not recall if department officials had told the committee that OFGEM had advised them to amend the scheme to reflect controls in a similar scheme in Great Britain.