The Ulster Farmers Union (UFU) has hit out at attempts by some in the mainstream media to link their members, and the wider organisation, to the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scandal.

The Union maintains that this is allowing the focus to move from the design and lack of controls in the scheme.

“These are, by definition, progressive farmers who have always taken up new ideas. They were encouraged by those buying what they produce and by government to embrace this scheme,” UFU chief executive Wesley Aston said in a statement on Monday.

A number of former UFU presidents are known to be RHI claimants, including Harry Sinclair, Ian Marshall and John Gilliland.

The family of current UFU president Barclay Bell also has an RHI accredited boiler to utilise on farm woodland and to dry grain.

The RHI scheme was introduced in NI in November 2012 and was widely taken up in some farming sectors to subsidise the cost of heat from renewable sources. It closed in February 2016 with an estimated £490m overspend to be met by the NI block grant.

Soft targets

“Some are now seeking out soft targets over RHI. I would suggest they turn the focus back to where the blame should be – on a poorly designed scheme and the lack of government audits to find and punish those breaking the rules,” Aston said.

He said that this was a “form of victim shaming” as farmers are also taxpayers and victims of the over budget scheme and pointed out that RHI claimants had to invest large sums of money in installing boilers.

Cost saving cuts to the RHI tariffs starting from April 2017 were approved by the Assembly in January. However, the cuts have been challenged by the newly formed Renewable Heat Association NI and a hearing for a judicial review has been provisionally scheduled for 20 and 21 March.

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The RHI scheme explained

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