{"id":459884,"date":"2026-04-29T16:06:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T16:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/459884\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T16:06:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T16:06:12","slug":"significant-fuel-support-schemes-worth-e220m-confirmed-for-farmers-and-hauliers-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/459884\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Significant\u2019 fuel support schemes worth \u20ac220m confirmed for farmers and hauliers \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two \u201csignificant\u201d fuel support schemes for road transport firms and farmers worth a combined \u20ac220 million are being made available in response to the fuel prices crisis. <\/p>\n

The new scheme will result in a reduction of 20 cent per litre \u2013 or \u20ac200 per 1,000 litres of green diesel, also known as marked gas oil<\/a> – for farmers<\/a> and farm contractors for fuel consumed between March and July. <\/p>\n

Combined with the earlier support scheme announced in March<\/a>, the overall reduction comes to \u20ac274 per 1,000 litres. <\/p>\n

The scheme for road transport companies would yield an average benefit of \u20ac14,000, the Government has said, announcing the supports weeks after the nationwide protests over soaring fuel prices.<\/p>\n

The measures apply to approximately 120,000 farmers and 1,500 full-time agricultural contractors, with payments to be made through a single application process. The funding allocated will be based on fuel usage last year.<\/p>\n

Farmers and agricultural contractors will be able to apply for the scheme over the next four weeks before the deadline in the middle of May. <\/p>\n

The schemes form part of an overall spending commitment of \u20ac755 million to subsidise the rising cost of fuels made by the Government since the war in Iran began in late February. <\/p>\n

The details of the package were set out on Wednesday by Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon and Minister for Energy Darragh O\u2019Brien. <\/p>\n

\"MinisterMinister for Transport Darragh O’Brien and Agriculture Minister Martin Heydon announcing the \u20ac100 million Fuel Support Scheme. Photograph: Brian Lawless\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

Heydon said the farm scheme was designed to reflect actual usage rather than applying a flat-rate payment. <\/p>\n

He said there had been internal debate within his department on the best method of payment, but a straightforward per hectare rate was ultimately rejected on the basis it was not an accurate indicator of the use of green diesel. <\/p>\n

Agricultural contractors will also be allowed access to the scheme based on their fuel usage. <\/p>\n

The Road Transporters Support Scheme will provide direct payments to operators based on fleet size. O\u2019Brien said this would equate to about \u20ac14,000 per recipient on average. <\/p>\n

Under the scheme, operators will receive \u20ac1,350 per vehicle for fleets of up to five vehicles, \u20ac790 per vehicle for the next 14 vehicles and \u20ac300 per vehicle for fleets exceeding 21 vehicles.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien described the supports as \u201cnot insignificant\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"MinisterMinister for Agriculture Martin Heydon said the farm scheme was designed to reflect actual usage. Photograph: Brian Lawless\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

He emphasised that the measures were time-bound and targeted. He also said the Government would maintain flexibility for further intervention if required.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien also pledged there would be no further pause in the carbon tax. He defended that tax as \u201ccritically important\u201d for protecting the country against future economic shocks and advancing electrification efforts. <\/p>\n

He pointed to ongoing investment in retrofitting, with \u20ac640 million allocated this year and a target of upgrading 73,000 homes.<\/p>\n

He criticised the Opposition parties over their demands for mini-budgets, arguing that they were disproportional responses. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m listening to particularly Sinn F\u00e9in, who would overnight spend \u20ac9 billion or \u20ac10 billion of the surplus that people have worked so hard to to bring about,\u201d he said, referring to the surplus the Government is forecasting this year due to increased tax revenues.<\/p>\n

Asked what policy measures the Government would introduce to reduce the State\u2019s dependency on fossil fuels over the next four years, Heydon said: \u201cThe challenge we have in the agriculture is that there is not a natural electric tractor coming around the corner next week that will replace the need for fossil fuels.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cAgriculture is one of those sectors that is very much dependent on fossil fuel now and will be in the medium term as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about the example of Spain which has invested heavily in renewable energy since the last fuel prices shock in 2022, O\u2019Brien said the Spanish faced the same problem with transport. <\/p>\n

There would be significant development in solar and onshore renewable projects over the next few years and said that work on the first two offshore wind farms would begin as early as 2028. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two \u201csignificant\u201d fuel support schemes for road transport firms and farmers worth a combined \u20ac220 million are being…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,2190,2914,15778,18,13,14,51907,189695,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,30839,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-459884","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-cost-of-living","11":"tag-darragh-o-brien","12":"tag-department-of-agriculture-food-and-the-marine","13":"tag-eire","14":"tag-featured-news","15":"tag-featurednews","16":"tag-fuel-allowance","17":"tag-fuel-protests","18":"tag-headlines","19":"tag-ie","20":"tag-ireland","21":"tag-latest-news","22":"tag-latestnews","23":"tag-main-news","24":"tag-mainnews","25":"tag-martin-heydon","26":"tag-news","27":"tag-top-stories","28":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116488856856146595","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}