The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has demanded that payments to farmers under the new Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Scheme (TAMS 3) are made quickly.
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue today (Tuesday, June 11) announced the commencement of payments in respect of claims submitted under the scheme.
Payments totaling almost €1.4 million under TAMS are set to issue this week, and will continue to issue on a weekly basis as claims are submitted in respect of completed investment.
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) is also continuing to issue approvals across all TAMS schemes.
Over 12,000 approvals to commence investments have been issued under tranche 1 and tranche 2 of the scheme to date.
Reacting to the announcement, IFA National Rural Development chair, John Curran said that it is essential that the maximum number of farmers are paid and paid promptly.
He said that many of these farm investments were made, and costs incurred, many months ago, particularly for mobile assets.
TAMS
Curran said that more broadly, TAMS reference costs are “very much out of kilter with prevailing costs of materials”.
“Investment ceilings and costs need to be reviewed upwards to better reflect the new cost realities. This is particularly relevant given Revenue’s changed perspective on items eligible for VAT 58 reclaims,” he said.
“There also needs to be greater minimisation of bureaucracy/verification to speed up the whole process and help ensure all funding is fully utilised.
“Any unused funding within TAMS must be retained and re-circulated for future tranches to support on-farm investment,” he added.