Agricultural fuel support eligibility
Richard O'Donoghue asks why plant-hire businesses doing agricultural work are excluded from the fuel scheme; the Minister says EU state-aid rules limit eligibility to agricultural production, with separate support planned for plant businesses.
On the scheme the Government brought out for the agri sector for the fuel, some of the sectors are saying that unless you are under an agricultural contractor you do not qualify for this scheme. We have an awful lot of plant hire people who do agricultural work but they do not qualify for the scheme. We have people who might be registered as being a plant hire company but do agri work, and they do not qualify for this scheme. Why is that? If you are doing agricultural work, you should qualify for the scheme. Also, from the point of view of all the construction sector, there should be something for plant hire within the construction side as it helps to bring down the cost.
Comment on this
I thank Deputy O'Donoghue. I am delighted to see thousands of farmers and farm contractors applying for our fuel support scheme for them. That has a very clear definition. Under EU state aid rules, we have to define the activity and in this case it is agricultural production. The Government has committed to and is working on separate lines of support for those in the plant industry. Where agricultural contractors are using green diesel or marked gas oil and it is directly linked to the production of agricultural produce, that is covered under this scheme.