127. Deputy Danny Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Transport for updates on the fuel subsidy support schemes. [66662/26]

The Road Transporters Support Scheme (RTSS) was introduced earlier this year to support road transport operators in the face of rising fuel costs. The RTSS was necessitated by the essential role played by the road transport sector in Ireland’s supply chains, supporting businesses and providing essential connectivity across both urban and rural communities. The RTSS provides direct financial support to licensed hauliers, commercial coach operators and the own-account sector in line with EU de minimis rules on State Aid.

My Department received approximately 4,400 applications, covering more than 31,500 vehicles under the Scheme. All applications submitted to my Department during the original application window that provided complete information have been assessed and approved for payment in respect of eligible vehicles. This equates to approximately 3,400 applications that have been approved for payment by my Department, please note that applications may have a mixture of eligible and ineligible vehicles and some applications did not include any eligible vehicles. Approximately €52 million has been paid to date directly to these applicants. An additional €6.9m has been transferred to the Department of Education and Youth for payment to school transport providers. The final cost of the Scheme is not presently known as it will depend on the ongoing processing of applications.

The remaining applications featured errors that were identified by Department staff during their application processing. Broadly speaking, these errors relate to missing or invalid financial information, invalid operator licence numbers, or duplicate information that appeared across multiple applications. My Department engaged directly with these affected applicants to rectify these issues.

The processing of all remaining applications submitted during the initial application window is now in an advanced stage. I understand that approximately 470 applications where processing was delayed due to missing or invalid financial information have now been assessed and approved for payment noting that not all applicants will receive a payment as their application may not have included any eligible vehicles. Further to this, I understand that all remaining applications will be processed in the coming days and applicants will be contacted directly with an assessment outcome.

Additionally, approximately 120 late application requests were received by my Department during the designated late application window. My Department has reviewed these requests and will engage directly with the requesters by the end of this week.

All applicants will have the right to appeal decisions that resulted in payment being withheld for one or more vehicles. I expect details of the appeals process to be confirmed shortly.