Sean Defoe with the latest from cabinet
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What key issues are being addressed in the cabinet meeting?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk with Aviva Insurance. Now, Sean Defoe's political correspondent with Newstalk joins me. Good morning, Sean. Morning, Clare. So there's plenty going to Cabinet this morning. We were talking earlier on about the reduction in supports for people from Ukraine who are here, but also the fuel support scheme drawn up in the aftermath of the protest. That will be signed off on today, will it?
Yeah, so this, the kind of peace deal, I suppose, that ended those protests a couple of weeks ago, at least with the official groups, the official hauliers and farmers. So there's two elements going to the cabinet this morning, one in relation to agriculture, that's a 100 million euro package, about 15 million of that is going towards fisheries and aquaculture in 85, towards the farming sector and largely through a pretty heavy subsidy for fuel, for green diesel supply. And essentially, so what they are putting in place, they say, is going to equate to a reduction of about 274 euro for a thousand litres of green diesel. And, you know, that kind of sounds grand on the face of it, except when you look at the costs of green diesel and how they've gone up, because it was 97 cent a litre in late February.
So, you know, a little under a grand to do a thousand litres. Now, in a lot of places, it's closer to 180. So there's still an 800 euro per thousand litre reduction. difference in that and this is taking away almost 300 euro of it still obviously welcomed by the agriculture sector but not quite meeting those full costs a bit more fulsome when it comes to the haulage sectors that they are getting what's called the road transporters support scheme it's similar to a scheme that they ran in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, in that it's direct payments and it's based on how many vehicles that a licensed haulage company has that are over three and a half ton in weight. So for the first five vehicles, they will get 1,350 euro per month.
That's up from 1,200 euro the last time they ran this scheme for number six to 20, it's 790 euro. And then
How does the fuel support scheme impact the agricultural sector?
For any vehicles over 21 that they might have in the fleet, it's €300 per vehicle, which is up from €200 the last time. And having crunched the numbers, the Department of Transport says that the average licensed haulier, they say, has 17 vehicles in their fleet, which would mean a payment of €16,230 a month between now and July and then also backdated to March.
So what else of note then will be discussed at Cabinet today, Sian?
So there's a few other bits going before ministers today. I think one of the more interesting or novel ones that we're seeing is a memo from Dara Kaliri, the Social Protection Minister, on a domestic violence travel supplement. This is going to be a new financial support that will be available to people fleeing domestic violence to meet their immediate travel needs, whether I suppose that's getting away from a particularly abusive relationship. Perhaps they are working in the area that they had lived and will now need to commute somewhere. It'll be modeled off the rent supplement and it's not going to be means tested for the first three months with then an option for people to apply for a further three months that would be means tested.
It's also not a set amount. So they're taking applications for this as it comes and basically depending on what the travel need is. They will adjust the amount they're paid. The only, I suppose, caveat for people who find themselves in such a really difficult situation trying to get away from an abusive relationship is that they need to prove it, essentially. They need to confirm that through either a referral from a COON-funded service provider that they maybe have been engaging with, a copy of a court order or written evidence from the likes of a GP as well. So there is a little bit of red tape to it. But it's something that they think along with the like to say the supplementary welfare allowance, which already exists for hotel accommodation in an emergency scenario.
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