arlene foster used to be the first minister. main reasons the devolved government collapsed. the renewable heat incentive was a scheme that ran massively over budget. she was challenged over why she forgot about a meeting three yea rs she forgot about a meeting three years ago when a political adviser told her about problems with this game. simply, i did not believe... the fact that were presented to me. ido the fact that were presented to me. i do not have a clear recollection andi i do not have a clear recollection and i apologise for that. i did not think it was an issue at the time and it was not put across as a big issue and i did not think it was of any issue. the scandal began with a scheme designed to encourage businesses to switch from fossil fuels to green energy sources but the subsidies were too generous which meant that more people burned the more they earned. for every £1 worth of environmental fuel the user got back £1 60 from the public purse. the overspend was £400 million. the dup minister in charge of the sche

the dup leader, arlene foster, has denied that her party tried to smear a former minister when he raisedble heat incentive scheme. it had a projected overspend of hundreds of millions of pounds, and sparked a row which helped bring down the stormont executive. live to chris page, who's following this story for us. chris, as i said, this is a row that had a huge effect. watmore has she been saying at the enquiry? that's right. there has not been too much going on at stormont for the past 12 months —— 20 months since he devolved government collapsed. there has been an enquiry into the energy scheme which triggered the row which broke down power—sharing early last year. to remind you basically how this scheme works, it was designed to encourage businesses to switch from fossil fuels like coal to more environmentally friendly energy sources like wood chips, for example. but the subsidy paid out was greater than the cost of the green fuel. that meant lots of people piled in wanting to earn more money than what they earned, essentially. it became nicknamed the cash for ash scandal. the budget

the dup leader, arlene foster, was the minister who signed off the scheme.bout a meeting when an adviser at first told her of its problems. i don't have a clear recollection and i apologise for that. but i obviously didn't think it was an issue of any moment at that time and had not been put across as a big issue by mr kearns and therefore i did not think it was of any issue. the inquiry has exposed a number of flaws. just two civil servants worked on rhi, compared with more than 70 working on a similar scheme in britain. staff gave advanced notice of a cut in the subsidies which created a spike in demand a massively increasing the overspend. and a dup adviser at the time, andrew crawford, shared confidential information with his cousin who was a claimant. previously, northern ireland's chief civil servant also revealed that key meetings were not minuted because the dup and sinn fein were sensitive to criticism. it is safer sometimes not to have a record that, for example, might be released under freedom of information. for those who signed up, like this car

the leader of the democratic unionist party, arlene foster, has been giving evidence to a public enquiry about a badly mismanaged energy scheme that led to the collapse of the northern ireland assembly. and a beluga whale has swum into the river thames near gravesend in kent. experts say it is obviously very lost and quite possibly in trouble. now, ina now, in a moment it will be time for sports day, but first a look at what else is coming up for you on bbc news. we will be live in liverpool with all the latest of elements from the labour party conference. we are also live in pennsylvania where comedian bill cosby is being sentenced for drugging and sexually assaulting a one—time friend in 2004. we assaulting a one—time friend in 200a. we can see live pictures outside the courtroom. you can see police officers waiting. we are expecting that sentencing imminently, but as usual these things are subject a little bit to change, but as soon as we see the judge seeming to start those proceedings, we will return to pennsylvania. and of course we will ta ke pennsylvania. and of course we will ta

it looks to be a challenging day for arlene foster ahead.l 100 million, that has been reduced by they to cut. the way the scheme work, it was designed to encourage businesses to switch from fossil fuels to more environmentally friendly energy sources, but the subsidies on offer were greater than the cost of the green fuels. that meant the more people earned, the more they burned, there was that of payments and the budget spiralled out of control. soap arlene foster is testifying before the public enquiry today. so far over the ten months it has been operating, the enquiry has heard claims that the people would call advisers made most of the decisions instead of politicians. it is the minister in charge of the scheme said the party was trying to smear him and mrs foster in a written statement has said that if certain it was going on. could talk you. thank you for that. —— good to talk to you. three people in the us, all paralysed from the waist down, have been able to walk again with the aide of an electrical implant. doctors used an electrod

arlene foster used to be the first minister, now the main focus of stormont is this public enquiry.e. adviser first told her about problems with the schemelj adviser first told her about problems with the scheme. i do not have a clear recollection of the fa cts have a clear recollection of the facts presented to me, i apologise, i beazley did not think it was an issue of any great thing at that time and it was not put across as a big issue and therefore i did not think it was of any issue. —— obviously. the scheme was designed to get businesses to switch from fossil fuels to green energies, it was too generous, the more they burned, the more they earned, for every pounds worth of environmentally friendly fuel, the user got back £1 60 from the public purse, the projected overspend was estimated to be £490 million over 20 yea rs. estimated to be £490 million over 20 years. jonathan bell, in charge of the scheme, told the chair that the dup tried to discredit him for speaking out about the floors of the scheme. you are asserting that the dup has created a massive smear campaign against

the leader of the democratic unionist party, arlene foster, has been giving evidence to a public enquirybeen discussing what should happen to immigration after brexit. they have agreed in principle that highly skilled workers from all over the world should be prioritised and eu nationals should not be given preferential treatment. but some business leaders fear that raising the bar and allowing in fewer low—skilled eu migrants could damage the economy. our home editor, mark easton, reports from corby.. our home editor, mark easton, reports from corby. corby has been described as england's fastest—growing town. thousands of eu migrant workers, particularly from poland, have seen its population and its economy expand rapidly in recent years. thank you very much indeed. it is fair to say the prosperity of this town is reliant on often low skilled workers from europe, but the pace of change has also created real tensions here. with government ministers suggesting special treatment of eu workers will end with brexit and a squeeze on low skilled migration, do the people of corby think that is

two main political parties here are concerned, sinn fein and the dup have a reaction to this, arlene fosterbly cannot pass legislation. sinn fein have said they thought it should have been done months ago. sinn fein have said they thought it should have been done months agolj suppose on the basis of this fixing mines, is there any evidence it might? karen bradley hope so. she said it is not some to beat mla with, those are her words in the house of commons but she says that it hopes to provide an incentive for getting back into government with each other. they will get paid back up each other. they will get paid back up to the full level again. will this actually make a difference? fundamentally we have many big disagreements between the two main parties over, for example, whether new laws should come into effect to protect the irish language and there's a difference in opinion over same—sex marriage. and they brexit differently. sinn fein are campaigning for them to remain in the eu and have some sort of special status within the eu. many divisions remain within the parties, the government