Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) president Francie Gorman said the current derogation on a levy on agricultural tyres "must remain in place" until market imbalance issues are addressed.

Gorman said that there needs to be a "practical disposal system" for existing waste tyres put in place before agricultural tyres can be included in the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme.

The EPR scheme is used to find sustainable solutions to manage waste tyres. Up until 2025, the scheme was used for passenger cars, 4X4s, vans, and motorcycles.

According to the department, the expansion of the scheme will enable the environmentally sound management of all tyre categories.

“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," Gorman said.

"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," he added.

Gorman spoke following a meeting of an IFA delegation with Minister of State Alan Dillon 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," Gorman said.

The IFA president added that a "credible agreement" would need to be in place for both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland for the levy to go ahead.