“Like many businesses and organisations across Northern Ireland, Charles Hurst legitimately and fairly engaged with the RHI scheme based on the information which was provided and which was publicly available at that time.
"As a responsible business with almost 1,000 staff at locations across Northern Ireland, reducing our carbon footprint is a key priority for us and the scheme as it was presented was usefully employed to assist us in meeting that requirement.
"Charles Hurst entered into the scheme entirely in good faith and we publicly and specifically outlined our engagement at the time, as well as the environmental benefits which it offered.
"At no stage did we seek to disadvantage taxpayers and we were not in receipt of any knowledge at the time that this might be the case.
"It was our understanding when we invested in the equipment required to support our participation in the RHI scheme that the funding available was ring-fenced by the Northern Ireland Assembly to support the overall objectives of the scheme, to ensure its success and to promote legitimate take-up from businesses across a variety of sectors.
"Given the information that has come to light over the past few weeks, we will be undertaking a review of the scheme and how it applies to our business.”
