Renewable Heat Incentive in Northern Ireland: Devolved government policy failure

The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme in Northern Ireland (NI), 2012–17, led to a major scandal in terms of misuse of public money. The RHI was the subject of a public inquiry and the RHI was a contributory factor in the collapse of the regional government in January 2017. The RHI is a case study in government failure: illustrating how well-intentioned interventions can lead to harmful outcomes. The RHI shows how the devolved machinery of government created policies containing significant design flaws. This was partly the result of a capacity problem: a lack of resources to handle complex policies. Ironically, in the RHI case, a greater level of accountability helped to skew policy in a harmful direction by giving undue influence to vested interest groups. The authors’ focus is on how the civil servants designed policies with significant flaws but with attention given to the role of consultants, special advisers and politicians.