The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) has said that a slow review of costings related to the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) is "costing valuable time” on improving water quality.

Chair of the ICMSA farm business committee, Pat O'Brien has urged the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) to complete the review and proceed “immediately” with increases.

“This delay is knocking-on and effectively jamming up the system as interested farmers await the publication of the review that will – we hope- reconnect the TAMS costings with the real price of, for instance, concrete and steel," O'Brien said.

The ICMSA raised the issue at a recent meeting of the Farmers' Charter meeting, with O'Brien stating that if the grants "are to have any relevance then the grants themselves must be relevant to the actuals costs of building materials".

DAFM confirmed to the association that it is working on updating overall costings, and that it will be later in the year when the review is complete with no definite timeline provided.

O’Brien said that whole building seasons "are being lost through delay and prevarication on something that everyone knows will have to be updated and rectified".

The committee chair also reminded farmers that a two-week TAMS tranche is now open, until Friday, March 28, for items related to storm damage.

The specific items in respect of which applications will be accepted include: Backup PTO (power take-off) generators; Sheep, bovine and equine fencing; Wood and biomass chippers; and mulchers.

O'Brien added that these applications "should not delay the approvals of applications under Tranche 6", which closed on March 7.

“This delay is costing us valuable time and progress that could matter for that critical derogation decision at the year’s end”, he said.

O’Brien also highlighted confusion around grant-aid for robotic milking machines under the TAMS dairy equipment scheme and called on the department to update the scheme’s terms and conditions.