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AUTHOR’S NOTE

Some of the facts in this book will seem so lavishly far-fetched that I feel it necessary to assure the reader that none of this is fictitious. I have sought to lay out the evidence so that the reader can form their own view of not just what really happened but, crucially, why. While much of what happened is factual, the reason that it happened is less straightforward. I have attempted to leave it to readers to decide why events turned out as they did and in order to do so I have sought to incorporate the views of all the key individuals in an effort to explain – even if it does not excuse – why they acted as they did.

What follows draws heavily on the tens of thousands of pages of evidence published by Sir Patrick Coghlin’s public inquiry into the scandal, which involved remarkable work by a small team without whose work this book would be missing multiple key sections. Much of that evidence has never before been reported. Frequently, I have specified that a piece of evidence emerged in written or oral evidence to the inquiry. For stylistic reasons, on other occasions I have not made this explicit even where I am reporting what transpired at the inquiry or in its voluminous evidence bundles.

Unless otherwise referred to, all references to RHI refer to the non-domestic Northern Ireland RHI.

For simplicity, I have referred to the Department of Finance throughout even though its name was the Department of Finance and Personnel until May 2016.

My gratitude goes to the scores of sources who have fed through information on an unattributable basis, some of whom continue to hold senior positions and whose actions are at some risk to their own positions. Without them, this book would be shorter and far less complete.