A proposal has been made to have the upper ceiling limit on one measure under the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) II increased, according to a Government source.

The Pig and Poultry Investment Scheme (PPIS) is one of the suite of seven measures available under TAMS II.

It is understood that Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Michael Creed is proposing to amend this TAMS II measure to increase the upper ceiling limit.

The current investment limit of €80,000, which applies across all TAMS II measures, is deemed to be too low to attract investment at a level sufficient to address the needs of the pig and poultry sectors.

As a result, it is proposed that an increased investment threshold of €200,000 per holding be applied under the PPIS. 

The current tranche of TAMS II available to farmers is tranche 16; this opened for applications on Saturday, October 5.

The tranche will remain open until Friday, January 10.

TAMS II first opened in June 2015 and is set to run until December 2020. This scheme is co-funded by the EU and the national exchequer under the Rural Development Programme (2014-2020) with a total allocation of over €395 million over its duration.

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.