Vital that Fuel Support Funding Remains in Agriculture

IFA Farm Business Chair Bill O’Keeffe has emphasised that any unallocated funds from the €85m Fuel Support funding provided to Agriculture must remain within the sector.

“It is now clear that a sizeable portion of the €85m allocated under the Fuel Income Support Scheme to help the agricultural sector through the energy crisis will not be utilised. However, it is absolutely vital that these funds do not return to the exchequer and instead stay with the Dept of Agriculture.”

According to the DAFM, payments are expected to total approximately €27m, leaving up to €58m available after this round.

“The energy crisis has had a huge impact on costs within the sector. In addition to fuel, we have also seen fertiliser costs substantially increase. While fuel costs briefly returned to more normal levels last month, we have seen a 40% increase again in recent weeks, so we may need an additional run of payments to assist with this volatility.” 

“Supporting farmers through a period of stubbornly high fertiliser costs has to be considered also as a logical option for some of this fund,” he said. 

“There are plenty of other ways we can use these funds to support the sector through this energy crisis, but the absolute number one priority must be that these funds are fully spent within agriculture,” concluded Bill O’Keeffe.