Jim Wells MLA Â©Edward Byrne Photography INNL1542

The DUP MLA revealed on Friday, five days before the list of RHI recipients is due to be made public, that he has a brother, two cousins and the spouse of another cousin who had installed wood pellet boilers under the RHI scheme.

During an interview on BBC Radio Ulster today (Monday, January 23) Mr Wells said he did not know his brother was on the scheme until Friday because he “assumed” he was using solar panels instead.

He also said he has not set foot on any of his cousin’s farms in a long time and that the family are not that close as he fielded questions on the TalkBack programme over how he only came to be aware they were recipients on the RHI scheme on Friday, despite the controversy surrounding the scheme in recent months.

Sign up to our daily newsletter The i newsletter cut through the noise Sign up Thanks for signing up! Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting...

Mr Wells, asked by presenter William Crawley whether it was a case of getting his “damage limitation in early”, said: “The moment that I became aware that my family were involved, totally legitimately, that is when I decided to go public. I sent the press release to every conceivable press outlet in Northern Ireland to let anybody know.”

He continued: “My relatives have done nothing wrong. I have no interest whatsoever in any of the farms. I was the eldest son, I could have taken over the farm, I didn’t. I went into politics and, therefore, the farm has been in my brother’s hands for 42 years and I am perfectly content with that.”

Asked whether he had “demonstrated a stunning lack of curiosity” for failing to ask whether any of his poultry farming family members were claimants on the RHI scheme, Mr Wells said he had more pressing issues on his mind, referring to his wife’s long-running struggle with serious illness.

He said: “I have other things going on in my life. They have been widely broadcast. I have to say, over this past few weeks, my priorities have not been to go round my relatives and ask questions about RHI. Unfortunately, I have much more difficult and personal issues to worry about, but you’re right. I should have asked. I should have enquired. I didn’t and that was wrong.”

Asked whether his was a “close family”, Mr Wells said: “No, we are not. I am not in and out of farmyards. We keep in contact - we might meet at weddings or funerals - but this is not the type of family we are in. There are no difficulties in the family but obviously I have gone down a totally different route than the rest of the family.”

Asked when he was told they were recipients on the RHI scheme, Mr Wells said: “I think around noon on Friday, roughly.”

Pressed on the issue, Mr Wells said: “In one of the farms, I have never been on it in my life. Another one I hadn’t been on in 20 years. The third one I have been on it once in the last decade. The only one that I’m directly visiting is my brother’s and it has solar panels and that is what I felt was heating the chicken shed. The solar panels are on the chicken shed but, no, he changed to RHI like almost every other chicken producer working for that company did.