Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Lombard for raising this matter and welcome the opportunity to outline the position regarding TAMS, known as TAMS II.

During 2015, a suite of six measures were announced under TAMS II. These measures were launched under the Rural Development Programme 2014 to 2020 and are co-funded under the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, EAFRD. The measures provide grants for capital investment in physical assets to assist the Irish agriculture sector to respond to a range of policy challenges. The six measures initially launched were: the young farmers capital investment scheme; the dairy equipment scheme, the organic capital investment scheme, the animal welfare, safety and nutrient storage scheme; the low emission slurry spreading scheme, and the pig and poultry investment scheme.

Among the objectives of the scheme are to enable growth and competitiveness in the sector, addressing environmental and climate change issues, supporting the increased efficiency on holdings and improving animal health and welfare.

In addition to these objectives, the young farmers capital investment scheme aims to address one of the key structural issues in the sector by specifically targeting support at young trained farmers by offering them a higher rate of grant aid of 60% compared to the standard rate of 40%. In March of this year an additional measure, the tillage capital investment scheme, was added to the list of measures. One of the objectives of this scheme is to facilitate the tillage sector to develop a targeted and precise approach focusing on environmental dividends, efficiency and growth.

There is a huge variety of items available under the suite of seven TAMS II measures. As in all measures, applications and payment claims must be made online, either by the farmer or by an adviser authorised to act on their behalf. The financial allocation in respect of TAMS Il for the full Rural Development Plan period will be in the region of €395 million. In order to encourage the drawdown of funding, provide increased budget certainty and to ensure that all farmers can avail of funding over the entire period of the Rural Development Programme, the length of time in which to undertake the works approved under the sixth tranche onwards was reduced from the three year period in previous tranches to six months for mobile equipment and twelve months for fixed building works. The period for the completion of works approved or to be approved under previous tranches remains unchanged.

I am delighted that the scheme has proved to be so popular with Irish farmers with over 15,000 applications submitted to date. Of these, over 11,500 or over 75% have been approved to commence work. Approvals issue on an ongoing basis with approvals under the most recent tranche due to commence shortly. The figures are much lower, however, when it comes to submission of payment claims by farmers. It is open to approved applicants to submit an online payment claim as soon as they are in a position to do so. The timing of the submission of a payment claim, within the approved deadline, is entirely a matter for the individual farmer and it is up to them when they carry out the approved works. To date, only 2,670 payment claims have been submitted. The Department has actively encouraged all approved applicants to submit payment claims, including by contacting approved applicants individually by text message. I would urge all approved applicants who have completed their works to submit a payment claim as soon as they are in a position to do so.

To date, payments have issued to just under 2,000 cases amounting to over €27.8 million. Payment claims submitted are examined and paid as soon as possible after they have been submitted.Where issues arise with a payment claim the applicant concerned is contacted directly by the Department to resolve outstanding issues. All 11,500 approvals issued represent potential outstanding liabilities for the Department. As regards the addition of generators or any other investment, it is simply the case that until the existing approvals mature to payment stage or the timeframe of the approval expires, then we must wait and maintain a budgetary provision to make payments. There is a commitment which we have made to farmers under the scheme and it is our full intention to honour this commitment.

At this point in time I am not in a position to add generators to the comprehensive list of investment items already approved under the suite of seven existing TAMS measures. I do appreciate the logic behind the Senator's case but I hope he will appreciate that until we know where we stand with the budget commitments, it is very difficult to commit to anything further.