TUV leader Jim Allister at Stormont. Picture by Mal McCann

A FORMER DUP special adviser is using a non-domestic RHI boiler to heat his own home, TUV leader Jim Allister claimed in the Assembly yesterday.

Using Assembly privilege he claimed that Stephen Brimstone, who has already been confirmed as a beneficiary of the botched scheme, had a biomass boiler but took it out and installed a different biomass boiler under the RHI's non-domestic tariff.

"Did he claim he had a few sheep and he was a sheep farmer? One thing's for sure: He's heating his own house," he said.

In December, DUP leader Arlene Foster confirmed that Mr Brimstone had been a recipient of payments, but neither the DUP nor Mr Brimstone have disclosed how much he has received or when he signed up.

Mr Brimstone resigned from the DUP in November, leaving his £91,809-a-year post to "pursue opportunities in the private sector".

In 2013 Mr Brimstone became embroiled in controversy when he was accused of telling Jenny Palmer, then the DUP's representative on the Housing Executive board, to change her vote in relation to a contract involving maintenance firm Red Sky, which later went bankrupt.

The Irish News also revealed that Mr Brimstone's brother, Aaron, who runs a karting business in Co Fermanagh, is an RHI claimant.

The DUP indicated to the Press Association that Mr Brimstone did not want to comment on Mr Allister's claims.

A list of all RHI recipients is due to be published tomorrow, January 25.

Meanwhile, former DUP minister Jonathan Bell has accused officials within the Department of Economy of withholding information from him about the green energy scandal.

Jonathan Bell, who succeeded Arlene Foster as minister at the Stormont department that set up the botched scheme, told the assembly that several of his requests for documents relating to the scheme - which has a projected £490m overspend - have gone unanswered.

Mr Bell was speaking during a lengthy Assembly debate about Economy Minister Simon Hamilton's proposals to curb the scheme's £490 million overspend.

He claimed one of the documents was an email suggesting "DUP party officers interfered" in the scheme.

The MLA, who was suspended from the DUP in December for speaking to the press about the scandal without party permission, said he had been prevented from closing the RHI scheme by DUP special advisers.

He claimed that a senior civil servant within the Department of Economy told him that had the special advisers not interfered the cost of the scheme could have been halved.

Mr Bell said he wrote to former First Minister Arlene Foster in March 2016 to tell her that special advisers were recommending that the scheme be kept open and to outline a number of difficulties with the initiative.

He claimed he had been told by other party members that a brother of one of the special advisers, Timothy Johnston, was installing the boilers.

The DUP immediately rubbished the claims. A party spokesman said: "For the avoidance of doubt, Timothy Johnston's brother does not, nor never has installed boilers, does not work in this sector and has not been involved in any RHI issues whatsoever. We challenge Mr Bell to produce a shred of evidence outside the chamber."

Last week, another special adviser - former DUP director of communications John Robinson - stood aside after it emerged that his father-in-law runs two green energy boilers.

Mr Bell said: "I have sought from the Department of Economy and the permanent secretary (Andrew McCormick) all the information that was made available to me as minister. I understood that a minister could see all the stuff that was there before.

"It is with regret I still haven't seen the information that was put before me as minister."

"It has been confirmed by the permanent secretary that there is an email in the system that says DUP party officers interfered in the process," he claimed.

Mr Bell said that last week he asked the permanent secretary if he could see that information, but he has still not received a reply.

"I'm not going to speculate as to why. Perhaps the judge (who will oversee a public inquiry into the scandal) will be able to give a more definitive answer," he said.

Mr Bell also claimed there is evidence that references to Arlene Foster and the Department of Finance in some emails had been removed.

He said he backed the economy minister's amendments to the RHI scheme.

"We need the regulations because special advisers interfered to keep the scheme open."