Fuel Supports to the Agricultural Sector: Statements
Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-21
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Joanne Collins (SF), Agricultural Panel

Go raibh maith agat. I have spoken to many farmers and contractors in recent weeks. When speaking about supports, they said their main objective was to see supports at the pumps, not a rebate scheme. I will not turn my nose up at €100,000 and I am sure nobody will, but they wanted it at the pumps as an instant relief on the cost they faced. I hope there will be enough staff put in to resource this. We have gone through ACRES a lot in committee and the Minister has assured us ACRES is up and running fine and the late payments are either up to date or are scheduled. I hope this does not go down the same path and that farmers and contractors do not have to wait until next year to see their payment come through. They cannot afford to do that.
On fertiliser, urea was €520 per tonne earlier in the spring and has gone up to €800 per tonne. I know of one farmer in Mayo who is milking 400-plus cows. He gets five loads of urea every year at the start. He is paying an extra €30,000 or €35,000 this year. That is a huge amount to have sitting in a bank amount on the contingency you may have to pay it. I do not know how he will pass that cost on. I do not think there is a way to pass it on. Something will fall behind on his farm or in his life.
We need to look at a full package; it cannot stop at fuel. We definitely need to look at fertiliser. Considering we had such a wet start to the year, it has only been going out for the last couple of weeks. Everything is late this year. Growth will be late and cutting will be late. Last year was slightly better but this year will be tough.
To anybody who asks where the Government will get the extra funds, I would respond it is a full package of €750,000 between farmers, contractors and hauliers. Think of the couple of steps that were built for €700,000. Maybe we could stop building steps and security huts and start thinking about where it needs to go. I know the Minister knows because he comes from a farm and knows what it costs and the stress that goes with it every day. They need our support and we need to stand up here and fight for that support.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-04-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:50+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-21