And as a result of the coalition’s crash, the cost of RHI will keep rising…

Few enough commentators have noted it, so it falls to Sam McBride to point out that the material corollary of Sinn Fein crashing the institutions is that the cost of RHI will keep rising:

As a direct result of Sinn Fein’s move, it is now not possible for the Assembly to pass emergency legislation – which would take at least 10 days to pass through the Assembly – to curb the cost of the out of control scheme.

And an inquiry on the terms outlined by Sinn Fein also cannot be set up, because it would require primary legislation. Sinn Fein vigorously opposed holding a full public inquiry under the Inquiries Act 2005.

However, to give its inquiry even basic teeth, such as the power to compel witnesses and documents, it therefore will require Assembly legislation to do so, which will be impossible prior to the formation of a new Assembly and Executive in March –if that even happens then.

Mr McGuinness’s decision actually came on the very day when Mrs Foster ended her opposition to calling a full public inquiry into the scandal.

Ho ho ho. Fun and games never end in this place.

We are reader supported. Donate to keep Slugger lit!

For over 20 years, Slugger has been an independent place for debate and new ideas. We have published over 40,000 posts and over one and a half million comments on the site. Each month we have over 70,000 readers. All this we have accomplished with only volunteers we have never had any paid staff.

Slugger does not receive any funding, and we respect our readers, so we will never run intrusive ads or sponsored posts. Instead, we are reader-supported. Help us keep Slugger independent by becoming a friend of Slugger. While we run a tight ship and no one gets paid to write, we need money to help us cover our costs.

If you like what we do, we are asking you to consider giving a monthly donation of any amount, or you can give a one-off donation. Any amount is appreciated.