“It’s an omni-shambles for the DUP with Mrs Foster fighting for her political career on a number of fronts.”

John Manley.Irish News (Belfast).Friday, December 16, 2016

Jonathan Bell is the whistleblower that Arlene Foster can’t ignore.

He claims the DUP leader pressured him to keep the Renewable Heat Incentive open in February and that months before her special adviser and his counterparts from the then first minister Peter Robinson’s office used their influence to keep the lucrative elements of the scheme in place.

It’s an omnishambles for the DUP with Mrs. Foster fighting for her political career on a number of fronts.

Her assertions about contact from whistleblowers lack clarity while she has yet to satisfactorily deflect her rogue colleague’s claims about interventions by spads[Special Advisers]. But in a blunt and unapologetic fashion, Mrs. Foster is determined to stick to her story that the scheme’s shortcomings were not of her making.

In the immediate future, she will hope there are no further revelations, but there will be no escaping the heat of the Assembly on Monday when MLAs reconvene for a special sitting focusing solely on RHI.

If she begins 2017 as DUP leader, Mrs. Foster will be facing the prospect of a far-reaching inquiry into this costly debacle that will seek to apportion blame in a manner the Public Accounts Committee cannot.