I didn’t know family members purchased wood pellet boilers: Wells

I didn’t know family members purchased wood pellet boilers: Wells

25 January 2017

SOUTH Down Assemblyman Jim Wells says he was unaware that four family members had installed wood pellet boilers through the controversial RHI scheme.

Mr Wells, who was confirmed as his party’s South Down Assembly candidate following Stormont’s collapse over the scheme, said he only learned on Friday that his brother and three cousins had installed nine boilers to heat sheds on their chicken farms.

Despite regular visits to his brother’s farm, he said he did not realise he had installed a boiler through the scheme in the autumn of 2015, while he admitted he is not close to his cousins and rarely, if ever, visited their farms.

There is no suggestion that his family members are using the scheme inappropriately.

Mr Wells said he immediately released the information he received about his family’s names being included on a list of RHI recipients to be published this week, saying “my party has nothing to hide, I have nothing to hide.”

He said his brother, who has run the family farm for over 40 years, used the boilers to heat chicken sheds, which he said was commonplace in the poultry industry.

He said his brother did not mention the boiler system because he did not want it made public.

“He knew if he told me I would have to tell the world,” he said.

“A lot of these people did not realise there was great significance applying to the scheme and are worried their name might be maligned because of it.”

“This is not a question of heating empty sheds, there were chickens there before RHI and there are still chickens there.

“I should have asked, I should have enquired. I didn’t and I was wrong.

“No matter when I went public on this, people would have said you should have gone public earlier but I didn’t know.”

Mr Wells said personal difficulties meant RHI was not foremost in his mind in recent months.

“I have no financial interest whatsoever in any of these businesses but I believe that was important that I make this information public as soon as I became aware of it,” he said.