Tánaiste Simon Coveney has warned the "bitterness" generated by the report into the so-called cash-for-ash controversy could cause further delays in getting the Northern Ireland Executive up and running again.
The report from the RHI Inquiry, which was chaired by the former appeal court judge Patrick Coughlin, is due to be published in the coming weeks.
The manner in which the RHI was introduced in Northern Ireland meant that owners of wood pellet boilers were given generous subsidies.
They were also guaranteed profits on the basis of the more you burn, the more money you make.
Speaking at this evening's meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, Mr Coveney said: "My understanding is that the RHI inquiry was fairly robust and it is going to report next month. I think that is going to be an awkward period, the reporting of that."
He added: "Some people are going to be put under pressure and so on. Of course lessons need to be learned and any new Executive needs to take account of those lessons. The one thing I would warn against though is, I don't think people should be waiting for the RHI inquiry to report in order to try to use that in a sort of destructive way.
WATCH: Tánaiste @simoncoveney warns "bitterness" generated by next month's report into the so-called cash-for-ash controversy could cause further delays in getting the Northern Ireland Executive up and running again. #rhi pic.twitter.com/7iErnovIh1
— RTÉ Politics (@rtepolitics) February 21, 2019
Instead I think we should be learning lessons from it, fixing what was broken and then trying to get an executive functioning again."
But he also warned: "There is a danger from RHI that the bitterness that may come out of that may delay even further the opportunity to get an executive up and running."
He did say there must be a political consequence after an inquiry of this nature and he suggested "the consequence of this inquiry should be how a new executive works in order to make sure that whatever the RHI inquiry uncovers cannot happen again because systems do not allow it."
