The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has told Agriland that payments under the Fuel Income Support Scheme are expected to begin in the "coming weeks".

The €85 million scheme was introduced as a "targeted income support" to assist farmers and agricultural and forestry contractors facing "unprecedented increases in fuel costs".

The department said that it has received a "large volume of correspondence" in regard to the scheme from contractors.

Processing of these applications, which were paper based, is "still ongoing", the department added.

Fuel Support Scheme

Based on initial analysis, a DAFM spokesperson said that in "excess of 3,000 contractor applications have been submitted".

"However these numbers are subject to change as duplicate applications and ineligible or incomplete applications continue to be identified," the spokesperson added.

The department said that as final processing is still ongoing it is "not possible to say what the final payment rate or average payments will be".

"However, it is anticipated that payments will commence issuing in the coming weeks," the spokesperson added.

Payments

The department previously confirmed that 32,417 applications were made online through the AgFood portal by farmers for the Fuel Income Support Scheme.

Cork was the county with the highest number of applications at 4,573, followed by Galway (2,450), Tipperary (2,299) and Kerry (1,712).

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon recently said that the total payment to be made to each applicant will be calculated once all claims have been checked and verified.

He said the indicative figure of 20c/L "may not be the final figure", adding that if he can pay more, he will, subject to State aid rules.

"Based on the applications received so far, the average payment for farmers is approximately €650, while the average contractor will see a payment of more than €6,000.

"Larger contractors will potentially receive significantly higher supports," he said.