Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response. It is welcome that 68 of the 259 applications that have been submitted have been approved and letters have been issued. Obviously there is a long way to go with the remaining applications. I presume the Department is getting through them as quickly as possible. This is important. I want to raise again the issue of the limiting eligibility criteria. This has been raised for months, especially by the Women in Agriculture Stakeholders Group. It had flagged that the criteria as set out could lock women out of accessing these supports. We know that to qualify under the new scheme, women farmers must have been part of the farming enterprise in 2022 or have completed an agricultural qualification. The Women in Agriculture Stakeholders Group raised these as issues locking women out of accessing the TAMS support in the first place. I ask that the remaining applications be progressed as quickly as possible and that the Minister of State look to review the scheme's eligibility. One of the recommendations in the national women in agriculture action plan looks at scheme eligibility requirements and the need for them to be reviewed. I ask that this be done, perhaps after final approvals are made in the scheme.

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