IFA Sets Out Follow-Up Proposals to Address Spiralling Fuel and Fertiliser Costs

IFA met with the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance, Simon Harris; and Minister for Agriculture, Martin Heydon last week in Government buildings on the fuel and fertiliser crisis.

IFA President Francie Gorman said that while no commitments were given at the meeting, there was a commitment to consider the proposals put forward at the meeting and to meet again. 

“We have followed up the meeting with a series of detailed written proposals which we submitted today. We need urgent action; the Government are fuelling public frustration by not acting quickly enough,” he said.

The correspondence sets out a series of proposals that the Government needs to introduce as a matter of urgency to address spiralling fuel and fertiliser costs.

“Energy and fertiliser costs constitute a massive part of an Irish farmers’ overall cost base, both directly in using fuel and fertiliser to operate farm machinery and grow crops, and indirectly through the use of agricultural contractors, transport and other similar services,” the IFA President outlined.

“So far, the Irish Government has reduced farm diesel prices by just 5 cent per litre. This is a wholly inadequate response to an ever-deepening crisis and nowhere near enough to address the huge increase in prices. The Government must do much more and needs to do it immediately,” he continued.

“At our meeting last week, the Tánaiste ruled out any permanent or even temporary reduction in Carbon Tax. We still want the Government to reconsider this position. However, we have set out a number of alternative proposals to Government to address the fuel and fertiliser price issue,” Francie Gorman added.

Firstly, IFA is seeking the introduction of a Temporary Farm Fuels Support Scheme (TFFSS) that would provide farmers and farm contractors with a monthly support payment to cover the uplift in farm and contractor fuel costs (farm diesel and farm Liquid Petroleum Gas) compared with the same month in 2025. This would be backdated to March 1st, 2026.

IFA is also seeking the expansion of the farm diesel carbon tax relief to enable agricultural contractors to qualify. The scheme should also be simplified to encourage a more widespread uptake of the relief.

To address the cost of fertiliser IFA has reiterated its call to suspend the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) on fertiliser. 

To avoid a potential deficit in fodder production owing to the spiralling cost of fertiliser and contractor charges, IFA is calling for the reintroduction of the Fodder Support Scheme with a minimum payment of €150 per hectare to aid farmers in the higher cost of making both silage and hay this year.

IFA is also seeking a significant top-up to the existing Tillage Sustainability Support Scheme in recognition of the substantial increase in crop production costs as a result significant increases in the price of fuel and fertiliser. 

Finally, In the context of any restriction of access to fuel, farm diesel for use on farms and food production and fuels used in the transport and processing of food must be a priority.

“These proposals represent fair and reasonable steps that the Government can take to address the crisis we now find ourselves in,” he concluded.