The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) issued over €3.3 million in scheme payments to farmers last week.

The latest data, published by the department, shows that nearly €2 million was issued to farmers under the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Schemes (TAMS).

€1.73 million was paid out under the new TAMS 3 last week, while a further €222,000 was issued under TAMS 2.

Almost €55 million has now been paid out to date under TAMS 3 across 6,204 claims.

24,660 applications for the scheme have been approved by the department with 7,945 payment applications submitted.

Almost €670,000 was issued to farmers under the 2024 BISS and and Complimentary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS) last week.

119,154 farmers have now received a total of €841.3 million in payments under these measures.

The department noted that this figure includes the 2024 Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers of €36.4 million and the 2024 National Reserve of €3.1 million.

The department also issued a further €203,000 to farmers under the 2024 Eco Scheme, bringing the total payments to €306 million.

An additional €207,000 was paid under the Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) and Areas of Specific Constraint (ASC)

Last week, €107,000 was paid under the Protein Aid Scheme, €84,000 for the Baling Assistance Payment (BAP), €33,000 under the Straw Incorporation Measure (SIM) and €2,000 for the Multi Species Sward (MSS) Scheme.

A further €99,000 was paid out under the Organic Farming Scheme (OFS), bringing the total issued for the 2024 scheme to €48.5 million across 4,699 farmers.

€9,000 was also paid out under the Green, Low-carbon, Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS)

Meanwhile, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon has confirmed that almost €2.2 billion was issued in payments to farmers during 2024.

The minister was responding to a parliamentary question from Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín, who asked about the average annual Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) payments received by farmers in each county.

The data provided by the minister showed that the highest average payment per farmer was in Wicklow (€21,000), followed by Carlow (€20,000) and Dublin (€19,500).

The minister said that the average farmer payment for the state in 2024 stood at €16,808, with 14 counties recording average payments below that figure.

The data also showed that Cork was the county with the highest total payments at €239 million, followed by Galway (€189 million) and Mayo (€172 million).

The total payments (direct and capital, including TAMS) to farmers by DAFM by county in 2024 is as follows: