The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has extended tranche 19 of the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS II) by a further two weeks.
This means the new deadline for applications is now on Friday (November 13). The deadline for tranche 19 had originally been set for Friday, October 30.
The announcement of the extension of the current tranche (19) came on Friday last (October 30) when it was due to close.
Tranche 20 of the scheme is due to open after the extension of tranche 19 closes on Friday (November 13) and it is due to close on December 31.
Approval delays continue
Demand for the scheme remains high and this could be seen in the last tranche (18) which closed on Friday (August 21). A total of 3,448 new applications were received by the department under that tranche.
The continuing high number of applications meant that the lowest ranking 30% of applications, which equated to 1,240, were rolled over to for consideration under the current tranche (19).
This rollover of applications is only going to further delay applications being approved and by the looks of it, it shows no signs of improving.
Payments
Figures released by the department last month show that payments of €1.4 million continue to be shelled out, on average, per week.
In the information note published by the department last month, payments under TAMS II had exceeded €246 million. The department also noted that there were still approximately 6,000 approved applications with farmers who had yet to submit payment claims.