RHI scandal: Three DUP MLAs have family members availing of scheme

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

And tonight, the party released a statement confirming that another two members, MLAs Carla Lockhart and William Irwin, have family ties to the botched green energy scheme.

The statement from the DUP press office said: “Following an audit of all our MLAs in order to achieve transparency and to help build public confidence we asked every DUP MLA to indicate whether any of their family members are beneficiaries in the RHI scheme.

“Carla Lockhart has indicated that her sister-in-law’s husband is a farmer and is in the scheme. Carla has only recently become aware of this.

“William Irwin has a son-in-law who is a farmer and is in the scheme.

Neither MLA was involved in lobbying for these individuals and neither has any financial or other interests in the farms concerned.

“We would again want to point out that in the main those in the non domestic RHI scheme applied absolutely legitimately to what was a government approved scheme and should be viewed as such.”