DUP leader Arlene Foster: 'Good day for Sinn Fein' in Northern Ireland Assembly election

Turnout in the Assembly election hit its highest level since 1998 and it appeared to benefit Sinn Fein.

Democratic Unionist Party leader Arlene Foster says it appears to have been a "very good day" for main rivals Sinn Fein in the snap Assembly election.

With first round results declared in all 18 constituencies in Northern Ireland, the DUP topped the poll in terms of vote share but it led Sinn Fein by just 1,168 votes.

Turnout hit its highest level in almost two decades and this appears to have benefited Republicans Sinn Fein.

http://news.sky.com/story/northern-ireland-assembly-election-voters-go-to-polls-10787031

I gather most of this is Ms Foster's fault, due to some massive, fraudulent scheme involving renewing boilers?

bb1 wrote:I gather most of this is Ms Foster's fault, due to some massive, fraudulent scheme involving renewing boilers?

I wouldn't have a clue what that refers to, but I wondered whther it had something to do with the fact that Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU Referendum by a majority of 56% to 44%. Either way, I don't care to be truthful. LL

I doubt if the EU actually had much to do with it, LL - you'd be surprised at how many people in the UK are sick to death of hearing about it.

The boiler fraud was a huge story:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-38229535

Imagine your home heating oil costing you 2p an hour. And for every hour you keep the heating on you get 3p from the government.
That was similar to the flaw within RHI, so we ended up with a scheme where "the more you burn, the more you earn" - a scheme that was not only economically calamitous, but potentially environmentally damaging.
More smoke
Patsy McGlone, who chaired the DETI committee when RHI was set up, said: "This is the paradox of it, that burn more wood and you get more money.
"It's not an incentive to improve or enhance the environment. It's an incentive to put more smoke up into it."


I won't even pretend to understand all the ins and outs of it; suffice to say, the buck stopped with Ms Foster.