Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We have an issue with TAMS, in that it is the one area in my Department's budget where it will be obliged to change tack to ensure all the money is drawn down. This is because many of the TAMS programmes it had outlined simply have not had the funding drawn down. There have been some exceptions such as the pig loose housing investment programme, for which a lot of money was drawn down. Similarly, a considerable amount of money was drawn down on the poultry side and some money was drawn down in respect of the dairy efficiency programmes. However, on other programmes such as, for example, the water harvesting programme, farmers simply did not draw down the money because they were obliged to provide matching funding themselves. Consequently, the Department is considering ways to ensure that the full amount of TAMS money available from Europe can be drawn down. However, as we have until the end of 2015 to do this, we should not panic in that regard.