Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue has said that expanding the Tillage Capital Investment Scheme (TCIS) would cost the State €120 million.
The TCIS which is part of the new Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS 3) provides financial support to farmers to help them achieve improved competitiveness, increased efficiency, growth and environmental benefits.
It is open to farmers who have a minimum of 15ha of owned, leased or rented lands declared under the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS), or equivalent, in the year of application or preceding year.
Tillage Capital Investment Scheme
In a parliamentary question, Sinn Féin spokesperson for agriculture, Claire Kerrane asked Minister McConalogue the cost of extending the TCIS to farmers with less than 15ha of land.
In response, the minister said that TAMS 3 is a “demand-led scheme, with significant budgetary constraints”.
“In order to ensure the most efficient allocation of resources under the Tillage Capital Investment Scheme, the scheme is specifically targeted at farmers who have tillage as their main enterprise,” he said.
McConalogue added that the costs of extending the eligibility criteria as suggested by Deputy Kerrane would be “significant”.
“Just to put this into context, the total number of farms in Ireland with tillage crops less than 15 hectares amounts to slightly over 10,000 farms.
“Based on the current average grant aid in TAMS of €12,000, this would equate to an additional budget allocation of €120 million, assuming all 10,000 applied for grant aid under the Tillage Capital Investment Scheme.
“With this in mind, I have no plans to widen the eligibility criteria for the scheme at this time,” he said.
Separately, Minister McConalogue said that a total of 365,860ha was claimed as tillage crops in 2023.
This figure was based on data from the 126,419 area-based scheme applications submitted to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).
“15,917 herds claimed at least one parcel with a tillage crop. The average farm size for these herds with at least one tillage crop was 61.04ha,” the minister said.