Ulster Unionist Deputy Leader and Agriculture Spokesperson Diana Armstrong MLA has said rural households and farm businesses are being hit hardest by rising fuel costs, with the highest diesel prices in Northern Ireland recorded in Fermanagh and Tyrone. She has called on the Chancellor to rule out any increase in fuel duty in this month's Budget.

Diana Armstrong said:

“The highest diesel prices in Northern Ireland are in our most rural counties. Fermanagh and Tyrone are both averaging over 194p a litre, and there are forecourts already charging £2. The places paying the most are the places with the fewest alternatives. There is no bus. There is no train. If you live in rural Northern Ireland you drive, or you do not go.

“Diesel has gone from around 132p in February to over 193p now. That is roughly £25 more on every fill, every week, for a working family. We are also more exposed than anywhere else in the United Kingdom, because more than half the cars on our roads run on diesel compared with about a third across Great Britain.

“Rural households are hit twice over. Longer distances to work, to school, to the doctor, to the mart, and no public transport worth the name to fall back on. A price rise that is an inconvenience in a city is a serious problem in a country townland.

“For farm businesses this lands on top of everything else. Feed, fertiliser, contractors, hauliers. Every one of those costs has fuel inside it, and none of it comes back at the farm gate. The farmer absorbs it or does without.

“It is not only farming. Every rural business that runs a van is carrying this. The builder, the plumber, the vet, the agricultural contractor, the lorry taking stock to the mart. In a country townland the vehicle is the business, and this cost comes straight off the bottom line.

“What I would say to the Chancellor ahead of this Budget is simple. Do not touch fuel duty. Rural Northern Ireland cannot carry another penny of it.”