Diesel tax brings German farmers to Checkpoint Charlie

Farmers in Ireland are watching events unfold in Germany with a number of questions on their lips.

The answers to some of these questions are pretty straightforward, others less so. Firstly, what propelled German farmers into taking direct action against their government? Proposals to scrap the excise duty relief on agri-diesel were the trigger.

As in Ireland, and indeed most countries, excise duty on petrol and diesel is levied, but not on agri-diesel or home heating oil. The reason given is that the excise duty goes toward road construction and maintenance, and tractor fuel, like home heating oil, is overwhelmingly consumed off-road.

The German government blamed the change in policy on lack of finance – the most recent budget was declared illegal in court, throwing spending plans into chaos.

What has compelled farmers to park up from the Brandenburg Gate to the site of the old Checkpoint Charlie is the suspicion that a wider green agenda is at work and that taxing a fossil fuel which is essential to food production threatens the viability of all farm sectors.

Listening to farmers on the convoy being interviewed, this single issue is merely the straw that has broken them. Like Irish farmers, they point to a pincer movement of a slew of environmental restrictions that are squeezing their small businesses beyond the point of viability.

As the protest approached Berlin, with an estimated 5,000 tractors in the convoy, calls grew for the government to go.

The latest news is that the main farmers union the Deutscher Bauernverband (DBV) has suspended the protest until Thursday, but it wants talks with government. The excise removal proposal, and one which would have increased the tax on tractor and machinery purchases, has been significantly watered down, but not removed.

So what happens next? The genie is out of the bottle, and farmers don’t seem keen to return home until they feel the government understands their perspective, and takes it on board with regard to policy formation.

And can it happen here? We saw a brace of farmer blockades in the heart of Dublin in 2019, so it can happen. That said, farmers can’t say there isn’t constant engagement and dialogue with Government – last week saw the Taoiseach and all the agriculture ministers at the IFA AGM, while Leo Varadkar and Charlie McConalogue also attended the ICMSA AGM in November alongside Eamon Ryan.

The litmus test Francie Gorman has said he will apply is whether the engagement is a genuine dialogue or merely a talking shop.

We’ll have to wait and see how that plays out, but for now, tractor diesel will be burned in fields and farmyards, but not Fairview or Foxrock.