Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is more than welcome. I am raising the targeted agricultural modernisation scheme, TAMS, and the issue we have with time-sensitive applications and delays in the system. TAMS is a very important scheme for the agricultural community. It provides grant aid and helps to ensure we modify our systems to become more appropriate. We have schemes for solar farms, low emissions, slurry spreading and tillage, which is also a very important scheme. There is also the dairy scheme.

We need to make sure there is a more efficient way of dealing with TAMS applications. There are farmers who applied under the scheme last May.They have gone through a process. They are now in a scenario where they will be drying off their cows next week and they cannot move ahead with the proposed construction of a milking parlour, storage and what is required. Because of that, whether they are in west Limerick or west Cork, the farming community is stalled because the Department cannot process applications. This is very significant for the many farmers who need to modernise their systems, make sure they are compliant with the new regulations that are brought forward and invest in their practice and their farm for the next generation to move forward.

Applications have been sitting there since last May. I know of farmers who have builders lined up and cows being dried off at the weekend, but they cannot move forward. We need to know when the application is going to be approved. If it is approved next January, it is no good because the cows are calving. This is a time-sensitive issue. They either get the application approved in the next seven days or they have 12 months to do it. There is no point coming back to anyone in the industry who was going to put in a milking parlour and tell them to start next January when the cows are calving. It just does not work.

What we need now is for the Department to work – and to work on Saturday and Sunday if necessary - to make sure that these time-sensitive applications are worked through and delivered in the next week. If they are not delivered in the next week, despite this talk about helping the farming community reach climate targets and make sure they have enough storage to meet their nitrates obligations, it just does not work because the farming community cannot get the approval from the Department. This is probably one of the most time-sensitive measures at the moment. What I suggest is that we make a statement regarding the number of farmers who are caught in particular with regard to milking parlours, that they are picked out and visited in the next week and that we get the approval in place. Otherwise, even the people putting in the milking parlours and the industry itself will be halted for 12 months.

It is one of the most significant issues that we have at the moment. I hope we can get movement in the short term. If we do not, there is no panic because there is no point in doing it for the next 12 months because the farmers cannot move forward. We need to get movement on this issue. I appeal to the Minister of State that we need urgent intervention from him and others to make sure this can happen.