TAMS hurdles 'make a bad situation worse' for young farmers
There is increasing resistance to the limitations young farmer must commit to for the Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Scheme (TAMS).
The chairperson of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association's (ICMSA) farm business committee, Pat O’Brien, said in a statement that: "more and more young farmers are coming forward with 'perfectly justified' complaints" about these limitations.
"Currently, to avail of a grant towards a milking machine under the TAMS [Young Farmers’ Capital Investment Scheme (YFCIS)], a young farmer has to sign off on a herd expansion limitation letter if they have between 121 and 160 cows.
"That figure must be an average over the year preceding the application and the young farmer will be penalised if they increase their dairy cow numbers in the five years after the grant is paid," the statement said.
According to O'Brien: “The first problem here is that herds of over 160 cows aren’t even eligible to apply for the milking machine.
"It is hard enough to get young people to farm without putting limits on their ambition ... and putting a ceiling on their cow numbers in this fashion.
"We can’t get young people to take over their family farms and this is making that bad situation worse,” he said.
O'Brien added that there was also "the fundamental illogical nature of it.
"If a farmer had 120 cows when applying for the milk machine, he or she could go up to whatever number they like, but if they have one more at 121, then they are restricted for the next five years, or will incur penalties in the event of them expanding their herd.
"It’s precisely this kind of nonsensical and arbitrary measure that’s turning young people away from farming; they have that ambition and energy and instead of supporting it, we have rules that actively suppress it and penalise it,” he said.
Costs and uncertainty
O’Brien also highlighted "the costs and lack of certainty involved in improving/starting up a farm:
“Our young farmers are telling us that these three-, four-or five-year cycles of regulations and [EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)) programmes cannot provide the certainty that’s needed.
"We are asking people of 25 or 30 years of age to commit to a 25 or 30 year career but we’re unable (or unwilling) to give them 25- or 30-year regulatory timeframes that will give them a degree of stability and certainty.
He stressed that "our young farmers are exceptional at producing milk and they are entitled to expect some degree of support instead of the begrudging obstructiveness that they get now".
Budget 2027
Agriland previously reported that key schemes such as TAMS had been prioritised in Budget 2027, with the TAMS budget for 2027 increasing to €93.35 million.
According to Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon, this represented "the largest ever annual budget allocation in on-farm investment by my department".
