Latest Tranche of TAMS II scheme to close this week

The latest tranche of the TAMS II scheme is set to close on Friday, April 7, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has confirmed.

Farmers have just a few days left to submit applications to the sixth tranche of the scheme, with applications only being accepted online.

TAMS II aims to provide farmers with grant aid to improve and/or build a specific range of farm buildings or purchase equipment that may benefit their farm businesses.

This current tranche was opened for applications in mid-January.

As of Friday, March 24, just over 290 applications had been submitted to Tranche 6 of the scheme, according to the Department.

However, officials are expecting this number to rise significantly before the deadline closes.

There is usually a large surge in the numbers of applications submitted in the final few days before the closing date of a particular tranche.

To date, a total of 10,835 applications have been submitted to the overall scheme (all tranches), the Department confirmed to Agriland.

From this total, 7,153 approvals have been issued to farmers.

Meanwhile, some 1,114 payment claims have been submitted to the Department.

The Department has reviewed and issued 667 of these payment claims to farmers; payments amounting to €8.597m have been made to successful applicants across the country.

TAMS II scheme opens to tillage farmers

In mid-March, a TAMS II scheme for tillage farmers, the Tillage Capital Investment Scheme, was launched by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed.

The scheme came into operation on March 8, 2017 and will close for applications on December 31, 2020.

It is jointly-funded by the European Union and the national exchequer and the financial allocation for the scheme will top out at €26m.

Grant aid will only be paid on approved, completed and eligible expenditure and will be paid at a rate of 40% up to the applicable maximum investment ceiling of €80,000 per holding, the Department said.