Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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122. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans to include milk recording equipment as an eligible investment under the new targeted agricultural modernisation scheme; when this scheme will open in 2015; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6416/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Rural Development Programme for the 2014-2020 period was submitted to the EU Commission for approval in July 2014.The following investments have been identified as priority areas which will be targeted in the TAMS scheme:

(i)dairy equipment,

(ii)low emission spreading equipment,

(iii)animal welfare and farm safety (specifically beef and sheep handling facilities) farmnutrient storage and animal housing,

(iv)pig and poultry investments in energy, water meters and medicine dispensers,

(v)organic capital investment, and

(vi)a young farmer capital investment scheme.

Milk recording equipment is not currently included as an eligible investment under the new TAMS Dairy Equipment scheme.

The new schemes can only be opened when EU Commission approval for the Programme has been received. That process is well underway but it is not possible at this stage to fix definitive dates for their introduction.