The Irish government has agreed a 20 cent per litre cut in diesel excise duty, while the 2 cent per litre NORA levy is also being waived, bringing the total immediate reduction at the pump to 22 cents per litre. The excise cut is due to take effect from midnight on Wednesday 25 March and will remain in place until the end of May.
For hauliers, the second part of the package is even more important. The government is increasing the allowable repayment under Ireland’s Diesel Rebate Scheme from 7.5 cents to 12 cents per litre until 30 June. That means qualifying operators will gain an extra 4.5 cents per litre on top of the rebate they were already entitled to claim. The rebate support for hauliers and bus operators is also being backdated to January 2026.
In simple terms, this means a qualifying haulier buying eligible diesel in Ireland could now benefit from 22 cents per litre in immediate pump-price relief, plus a 12-cent rebate, although only the increase from 7.5c to 12c is new within the rebate scheme itself. Compared with the previous position, that is worth 26.5 cents per litre more overall for qualifying diesel: 22 cents from the tax-and-levy cut, plus 4.5 cents from the rebate increase.
Put into money terms, every 100,000 litres of qualifying diesel would now be worth about €22,000 less at the pump during the excise-relief period, while the increase in the rebate adds another €4,500 compared with the previous 7.5c rate. That makes the package worth roughly €26,500 more per 100,000 litres than before for a qualifying operator, provided the diesel meets the conditions of the Revenue scheme.
The decision is the outcome of the pressure campaign that had been building for weeks. As Trans.INFO previously reported, the Irish Road Haulage Association had warned of protest action unless ministers moved to ease the pressure from soaring fuel costs, and later paused immediate protests after receiving assurances that a support package would be brought to Cabinet. The measures announced now are the concrete result of those talks.
The package does not amount to everything hauliers had demanded, but it gives operators two things they had been waiting for: immediate diesel price relief from 25 March and a higher rebate running until 30 June, backdated to January. For fleets buying large volumes of fuel in Ireland, that is now the key practical takeaway.
