Fuel boost for Leitrim farmers - but diesel fears return

The first tranche of Fuel Support Scheme payments was paid out last week to private farmers and contractors across the country, with €166,869.91 paid to successful applicants in Leitrim.

Around 611 applications were lodged in the county, with 511 farmers and contractors receiving payments under the scheme.

Nationally, around €27 million has been designated to be paid out across two batches of payments; first to farmers and contractors using green diesel during agricultural work and then to road hauliers using white diesel.

The Department of Agriculture said the scheme was undersubscribed, with around €57 million of the original €85 million allocated to the scheme still remaining.

The Fuel Support Scheme was introduced in April following a week of national protests over rising fuel prices.

Under the scheme, applicants receive 20c back per litre of green diesel used.

Paddy O'Rourke, Leitrim county councillor, farmer and hay dealer based in south Leitrim, questioned why more people in the county did not apply for the scheme but said it had been valuable for farmers.

"Any money that comes into a farmer's pocket is to be welcomed, but I suppose what exercises most people's minds now is they see petrol and diesel creeping up at the pumps again, and they're probably a bit apprehensive about what's going to happen."

Cllr O'Rourke also referred to the Government's initial response to rising fuel prices.

"I think that really maddened a lot of people that here was one of Ireland's largest industries and they were only being supported to the tune of 2 or 3 cents," he said.

Sligo-Leitrim TD Martin Kenny said the current scheme did not reflect how fuel is used throughout the farming year.

"The design of this scheme is clearly flawed, and does not take into account the fact that many farmers have higher diesel usage in the spring and summer compared to the rest of the year," he said.

John Moran, of John P Moran and Sons agri contractors in Drumshanbo, said the support had been helpful but that fuel prices remained a concern.

“We have enough now to do with another week or two, and then we have to start buying - probably instead of €1.04 that I bought there about three weeks or four weeks ago, I’d probably be buying it at €1.25, or €1.30,” he said.

The company has managed to keep its prices static despite higher fuel costs, but Mr Moran said prices may have to increase if fuel continues to rise.

He said he supported the fuel protests earlier this year, with his son taking part in a protest in Carrick-on-Shannon.

"If the government puts back on the VAT without it making sense, we would definitely be going out because we have to be nurtured, and if the buyer of the diesel is nurtured, then the customer won't be facing a bigger bill to do the work that has to be done."

The second tranche of Fuel Support Scheme payments, for road hauliers, has yet to be paid. There has been no confirmation of what will happen to the remaining funds from the scheme, including whether there will be another round of applications or whether the money will be redirected elsewhere.

Cllr O'Rourke said concerns about rising fuel prices extended beyond those using fuel for work.

"People are very concerned about that because there's a lot of people who didn't qualify for any assistance insofar as that they weren't using road green diesel, they weren't using road diesel," he said. "The only thing that they were using was kerosene.

"There's a lot of people whose tanks went dry last March, and they're still dry because they were waiting for it to come back down to where it had been before the war, and now they're very concerned."