Deferral of Agricultural Tyre Levy Needed Until All Issues Addressed

IFA President Francie Gorman said the current derogation on a levy on agricultural tyres must remain in place until market imbalance issues are addressed and a practical disposal system for existing waste tyres on farms is put in place.

“It is much too early to consider introducing a levy on agricultural tyres at this stage. Firstly, it will likely lead to a significant increase in the purchase of tyres from Northern Ireland, where no levy is in place, leading to a major loss of VAT revenue for the exchequer. Secondly, farmers have not been offered any way of disposing of existing waste tyres on farms similar to the collection points provided for waste plastic. These issues need to be addressed before we go about imposing any levy.”

The President was speaking after a delegation from IFA met Minister of State Alan Dillon TD this week on the issue. At the meeting, IFA highlighted key concerns around the proposed levy and also pointed out that many tyres are used for other purposes on farms such as covering silage pits, thus extending their life cycle significantly.

“The tyre levy will create a new tyre-based black economy and result in a significant reduction in VAT and revenue lost to the Irish exchequer on replacement agricultural and forestry machine tyre sales. Until a credible agreement is in place for both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, the tyre levy cannot go ahead,” concluded the President.