Green Energy Scandal Brings Down Northern Irland’s Government

Fresh elections in Northern Ireland will be called after its power-sharing Assembly collapsed over the fallout of a botched renewable energy scheme.

Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness quit as deputy first minister on 9 January and, in a motion in the devolved parliament on Monday (16 January), his party refused to replace him.

Under the terms of the power-sharing agreement, the Northern Ireland Secretary will now call for new elections and dissolve the 108-member Assembly, which was to govern until the scheduled next election in May 2021.

The toppling of the Assembly at Stormont follows the controversy surrounding a scandal-hit policy called the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme.

It was to encourage businesses to use renewable heat sources, but instead paid businesses to burn fuel, and could cost the taxpayer half a billion pounds in a farrago known as “ash for cash”.