Some 45% of TAMS II approvals have issued to farmers, the Department of Agriculture has confirmed to Agriland.
To date, 3,271 approvals have issued, with 2,129 approvals under tranche 1 and 1,142 approvals under tranche 2.
The Dairy Equipment Scheme, one of the six suites of measures under TAMS II, continues to have the highest approvals rates to date (1,292).
The Animal Welfare, Safety and Nutrient Storage Scheme has the next highest number of approvals with 778 issued.
No approvals have issued yet under the third tranche of the scheme which closed on June 24.
Meanwhile, the TAMS II Payment Claim Facility has been available online for farmers since the July 26. To date, the Department has said that there are five claims that have been formally submitted for payment.
Under TAMS II, individual farmers can apply for grant aid of 40% on investments up to a ceiling of €80,000, this is a maximum individual payment of €32,000.
Farmers who reach this grant aid ceiling are not eligible to apply for any other of the TAMS II schemes with the exception of the Low Emission Slurry Spreading (LESS).
For those farmers in a registered farm partnership with the Department of Agriculture, they can avail of grant aid to the value of €160,000. This applies to applications with two or more eligible partners.
Partnerships containing one qualifying young farmer grant aid will be paid at 60% on the first €80,000 and 40% for the remaining balance.
Farmers who fail to comply with the terms and conditions of TAMS II may be penalised up to 100% of the grant value, this will occur if farmers do not meet the eligibility criteria.