The Association of Farm & Forestry Contractors in Ireland (FCI) is still awaiting the final details of the Government’s Temporary Energy Support Scheme proposals for agricultural and forestry contractors, issued at the weekend.
“We understand that the deal will include up to a 20-cent per litre payment to Agricultural and Forestry Contractors as a lump sum based on their fuel usage levels between 1 March 2025 and 31 July 2025,” said Ann Gleeson Hanrahan, managing director at FCI.
“We also understand that contractors will have to produce fuel invoices from that period to verify their usage levels, and we are encouraging all of our FCI members to start preparing their fuel invoice paperwork now in advance of the opening of the proposed Temporary Energy Support Scheme for our sector,” she said.
Hanrahan states that: “We understand that all contractors applying for the funding, which will be paid as a single lump sum payment, will be required to be tax compliant, to have a VAT registration number, and the applicant will be required to have a minimum turnover threshold level.”
FCI is currently working with the Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine to create a definition of what an agricultural contractor is, and what a forestry contractor is. Once these definitions have been confirmed, they will become part of the requirements of the proposed scheme, ie that your business satisfies the definition.
FCI National Chairperson, Norman Egar, said: “It is also important for FCI that, at last, following many years of informative meetings with various Government departments, the role of the agricultural and forestry contractor has been recognised by the Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine and the entire Irish agricultural sector. We now look forward to the creation of a national registry of agricultural and forestry contractors as we begin the work of the first-ever Farm Contractor Working Group established by the DAFM, which has been scheduled to hold its first meeting in the coming days.”
