The IFA has called for a temporary farm fuels support scheme to be introduced for farmers and contractors to cover some of the increase in fuel prices in recent weeks.
It is one of a number of proposals the IFA has called for on Tuesday night and comes as thousands of hauliers and farmers blocked main road networks across the country, with the protest ongoing in Dublin and other locations.
Such a scheme 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 1 March, it said.
The IFA is also seeking the expansion of the farm diesel carbon tax relief to enable agricultural contractors to qualify. Contractors are ineligible for the scheme currently.
To address the cost of fertiliser, the IFA has reiterated its call to suspend the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) on fertiliser.
Fodder
To avoid a “potential deficit in fodder production owing to the spiralling cost of bother fertiliser and contractor charged, 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”, it added.
The farm organisation has also called for a “significant top-up” to the 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.
In the event that any fuel rationing is to take place, it has said that any 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,” IFA president Francie Gorman said.
Urgent action
The IFA met with the Tánaiste Simon Harris and Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon, last week in Government buildings on the fuel and fertiliser crisis.
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.
“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 added.
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