Members of the government are set to be briefed on new schemes to offset the costs of fuel and fertiliser for farmers today (Tuesday, October 13).

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon is expected to seek formal sign-off on the schemes at a cabinet meeting today.

Agriland understands that the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine will then announce the next steps on both schemes later today.

It is also understood that engagement with farm organisations will have to take place before details are finalised.

Both schemes were announced as part of Budget 2027 last week, although Minister Heydon has indicated that he intends for payments under both schemes to be made before the end of 2026.

The fertiliser scheme will have a budget of just over €46 million.

This is made up of just over €15 million made available to Ireland from an EU-wide fund to offset fertiliser costs, which will be co-funded, at a rate of 200%, with €31 million from the national exchequer.

Speaking to Agriland last week, Minister Heydon indicated that farmer participation in the scheme will be based on the National Fertiliser Database, rather than on an application process.

He said: "I envisage that farmers won't have to apply for that, that I'll be able to do it in a way based off the database.

"I'll have to set minimum and maximum criteria and I'll engage with farm organisations on that before finalising the scheme," he added.

The new fuel scheme, meanwhile, will essentially be a rerun of the Fuel Income Support Scheme, which was announced in April in response to green diesel cost increases resulting from the still-ongoing war between the US and Iran.

Payments under that scheme - which was open to farmers, contractors, fishers and horticulturalists - were made in the summer; although of the €100 million allocated, only €38 million was needed to meet the scheme's uptake.

The resulting underspend of €62 million from the earlier run of the Fuel Income Support Scheme will be used to fund the two new schemes: €31 million will be made available for the new tranche of the Fuel Income Support Scheme, while another €31 million is being used co-fund the €15 million made available from the EU in the fertiliser scheme.