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Stormont prepares for report on green energy scandal

Northern Ireland's recently restored executive power is criticized for harsh criticism in an investigative report into the spending scandal that overthrew the region's power-sharing government in 2017, leading to a dead end three-year-old girl who only ended in January.

Arlene Foster, Prime Minister of Decentralized Administration, is the most prominent figure faced with questions on Friday in a report following a lengthy investigation into a botched green energy program that left taxpayers a potential bill of £ 490 million.

Although the leader of the pro-British Democratic Unionist party is likely to be severely criticized for her role in the "cash for ash" scandal, observers in Belfast said that the report by Patrick Coughlin, a former justice of the the court of appeal would not break the new consensus between DUP of Mrs. Foster and Sinn Féin in Stormont.

The "Cash for ash" focused on a controversial program to encourage companies to abandon fossil fuels because it offered a much higher public subsidy for the use of wood pellets than the cost of combustible. Unlike a similar system in the rest of the UK, Stormont's Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) did not impose a cap on the amount that participants could receive.

The last executive collapsed three years ago due to divisions between the DUP and Sinn Féin over their response to the RHI debacle, but the schism was compounded by tensions around Brexit, which Ms. Foster supported and to which the nationalists opposed.

Foster is in the loop because she was Minister of Business when RHI was first introduced, Minister of Finance when costs skyrocketed, and Prime Minister when government with Sinn Féin collapsed. In January, she told Irish TV station RTE that she still expects to be Prime Minister after the publication of Sir Patrick's report, but that she still faces potentially damaging conclusions.

"It was obviously a monumental embarrassment and there is no way for Arlene Foster to escape here," said Jon Tonge, policy professor at the University of Liverpool and expert of the DUP. "But it is possible to survive in the sense that I would expect the blame to be shared among a large number of people, including officials, special advisers and of course Arlene Foster herself, who was the responsible minister for most of the period. "

Steve Aiken, leader of the Unionist Party of Ulster, the main rivals of the DUP, said that Mrs. Foster was likely to survive. "Unless there is something particularly overwhelming, she will likely stay there," he said. Such opinions were echoed by a senior Stormont official who knew the atmosphere within the executive: "Although the report is difficult, I do not have the impression that it will be somewhat threatening for the institutions . "

Foster and Deputy Prime Minister Michelle O'Neill of Sinn Féin were scheduled to travel to Washington for St. Patrick's Day ceremonies when the report was released, but on Tuesday they canceled the United States' visit to amid growing fears regarding the coronavirus epidemic.

Sinn Féin is also likely to be faced with questions in the report on the role of unelected party officials who were involved in the RHI's decision-making by the party's former finance minister, Máirtín O Muilleoir.

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