More than 20c per eligible litre of green diesel could be on the way to farmers and contractors successful in their applications to the Fuel Support Scheme, Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon has said.

The minister stated that the payment rate of 20c/l initially announced for the agri diesel support measures brought forward as part of wider Government fuel relief package in April, had been an “indicative figure” that could increase – if the funding allocated would allow.

The €85m earmarked in the scheme saw 32,000 farmer applications and while the Department of Agriculture is still working through contractors’ paper-based applications, the minister suggested that the level of applications received will likely allow for a payment rate of over 20c/l.

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However, the exact rate will be subject to Department of Public Expenditure sanction and EU state aid rules.

Ballpark figure

“I am telling you here clearly that 20c/l – the final figure may not be that. If I can pay more, I will. I gave an indicative figure to give a ballpark to people,” Minister Heydon told Wednesday’s Oireachtas agriculture committee meeting.

“I had people telling me it was only going to be 7c or 8c/l. It was always clear that there was an element of estimation in terms of how many people would apply and what the level of usage was.

“We know there is 105m litres of [green diesel] used in the country every month. The estimation around how much of that is used in the agriculture-side and the split of it used between contractors and farmers had a degree of estimation.”