Some 1,100 part approvals have issued to date under TAMS II and the full approval process has started, the Minister for Agriculture, Michael Creed has said.

The Minister announced the number of applicants in response to a parliamentary question from Fianna Fail spokesperson on agriculture, Charlie McConalogue.

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. Over 5,000 farmers have applied to the first two tranches of the scheme.

There are six individual schemes under TAMS II and the Minister has confirmed the number of applications received in Tranches 1 and 2 of TAMS.

Under the Young Farmer Capital Investment Scheme (YFCIS), some 1,130 applications have been received with Munster farmers having the highest number of applications.

Meanwhile, under the Pig and Poultry Investment Scheme (PPIS) there were some 96 applications, the highest of which was in Co. Monaghan with 44 applications.

There was 1,532 applications to the Animal Welfare, Safety and Nutrient Storage Scheme (AWNSS), with Cork farmers topping the number of applications at 236.

TAMS II applications

Applications were highest to the Dairy Equipment Scheme, with 1,660 farmers applying to the scheme.

Munster dairy farmers had the highest number of applications, with 374 from Cork, 217 from Tipperary and 175 from Kerry.

Under the Low Emission Slurry Spreading Equipment (LESS) some 452 farmers applied to the scheme while 291 applied to the Organic Capital Investment Scheme (OCIS).

TAMS II applications 2

Under TAMS II, farmers need to make an investment of at least €2,000 to be eligible for grant aid under this scheme.

The Department of Agriculture has said that grant aid will only be paid on approved, completed and eligible expenditure.

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 which 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.

MICHAEL CREED TAMS II