Revised costings set out in the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS 3) are still “double-digits short of the actual costs” that farmers have to shoulder, according to the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA).
Denis Drennan, deputy president of the ICMSA, believes a “huge opportunity” to support farmers “will be missed” because the costings are “`hopelessly adrift of the actual prices”.
Drennan said it was practically impossible for farmers to work out what was “going on around the issue of costings”.
According to the ICSMA if the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine (DAFM) wanted to “reconnect the costings in TAMS” to actual prices of construction materials then it should have applied “actual inflation” levels.
TAMS 3
Drennan said the department had failed to make the costings “someway” realistic.
“Why would you look at these figures and still leave them so obviously short of the real costs?” he asked.
“We get no satisfaction from observing this, but the fact is that TAMS 3 is out of date already in the first few weeks of launch.
“A huge opportunity will be missed and the responsibility for that failure lies, I regret to say, squarely at the feet of the department who came halfway to the mark under some headings and didn’t even try to come under other even more important headings,” the deputy president of the ICMSA said.
According to the organisation there are currently more questions about TAMS than answers available – particularly in relation to grants available for dairy equipment.
“Where TAMS 3 does make some attempt, its costings are still double-digits short of the actual costs – but at least some increase is being acknowledged.
“But under no less than 10 of the 15 various items under dairy equipment, we see no increase at all – absolutely nothing.
“So, the sector with the greatest focus on sustainability has had grants towards that end actually cut – because where inflation has run at the rates we’ve seen and grants ‘stand still’ then it amounts to a cut in real terms,” Drennan warned.
ICMSA has accused DAFM of turning the screws on the dairy sector and said that rather than providing support to it, the department had instead “cut that sector – the ‘flagship’ export earner – adrift and hinder rather than help”.
Farmer frustration
The organisation has also highlighted key issues around the “length and timing” in relation to tranches, specifically the slurry storage option.
“There’s a real frustration around the timing of this tranche: It’s been ‘pushed out’ to the extent that successful farmers will end up looking for a contractor in September to start doing this work just as the days get shorter and the conditions get worse.
“Surely this should have been brought forward so that at least the farmers were approaching contractors in June, and we were giving ourselves a chance to have the work done in optimum conditions?” Drennan added.
The ICMSA has also called on DAFM to “look again” at the Women in Agriculture scheme -which is scheduled to open in May – to ensure that “red tape” does not hinder women farmers who want to access the scheme.