Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The point Deputy Smith makes about terrain is a fair one and it has been made to me. Under the outgoing TAMS scheme up to the end of last year, for a dribble bar for low-emission slurry spreading or for the trailing shoe one, the grant aid was 40%. The trailing shoe machine is more expensive than the dribble bar and it is also bigger, but some of the research that came through to me was that the emissions reductions and the efficiency of the trailing shoe was much better than the dribble bar. That is why we have not included the dribble bar at present. If you are making a big long-term investment such as that, you want to make sure it will be good and efficient. We increased to 60% the grant aid for the more expensive trailing shoe machine so that the net cost to the farmer would be the same as if he or she had bought a dribble bar.

The Deputy has a point regarding the terrain. I will consider that and I am also finalising further research on the emissions efficiency before making a final decision on whether we will include it.

In the decisions I made yesterday on tranche 2, I have once again approved 100% of all valid applicants. Anyone who has a mobile application can go ahead and buy at their own risk on the basis that they will recoup the cost.

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