Tyrone poultry farmer's regret over RHI involvement
Fred Maxwell has 10 hen houses near Dungannon producing hundreds of thousands of birds a year.
He said the publication of the names of RHI grant recipients led to his family being threatened and his business “decimated” – despite paying twice as much to install and run the boilers than the £906,000 grant received from the government.
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Hide AdHis plight wasn’t helped when loyalist blogger Jamie Bryson claimed in a blog post that Mr Maxwell was a DUP donor. Mr Maxwell has stressed he was never a DUP donor or a member of the party, but at one time was a member of the Ulster Unionists.
“I got in what I needed in terms of the heat my chickens require,” he said.
“I just got what I needed. And every penny spent, apart from a small amount of wood chip I brought in from the south, has gone into the Northern Ireland economy.”
As a result of the strict requirements needed to rear chickens, the boilers used by Mr Maxwell are in operation for around six months of the year.
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Hide AdAfter opening up his business books to the Belfast Telegraph, Mr Maxwell added: “It’s a dry heat so all of a sudden the chickens were performing better, they didn’t need antibiotics or as much meal to grow.
“Aside from the incentive, that was the benefit, but I am not making money.
“There are crooks using RHI, in any system there would be.
“But I can’t see it being the chicken farmers,” he added.
“They could only use the heat for what they need it for. The chickens couldn’t take any more.”