Sinn Féin MLA Declan Kearney has said he is "deeply alarmed" over issues raised by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in its inquiry on the Renewable Heat Incentives (RHI) scheme.

Applications to the Non-Domestic Northern Ireland RHI scheme were suspended in February after claims of a massive multi-million pound overspend on the initiative, which could potentially cost taxpayers around £1.18 billion over 20 years.

Mr Kearney said the latest phase of the inquiry made it clear that responsibility for the scheme's failures rests within the previous governance of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI).

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"I am deeply alarmed that a culture of mismanagement existed within DETI, when it should have been functioning as the powerhouse department responsible for economic innovation, enterprise and investment in the North, at the inception and implementation of the RHI scheme," he said.

"I am also concerned about the possibility there has been high-level commercial exploitation of this scheme resulting in the orchestrated spike in demand to maximise commercial profit and gain. All of this now has repercussions for the resilience of the Northern block grant and wider public confidence."

Chairperson of the PAC, Robin Swann MLA, said: "While we are satisfied that the Department has commissioned a thorough fact finding investigation into what went wrong, there is still a great number of questions that need answered.

"The Committee will be continuing with its inquiry and we will be taking on board the findings that come out of the current Department investigation."

(LM)