Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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195. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans to introduce CCTV and security grants for farmers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48303/17]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The TAMS II Scheme already provides attractive grant rates for a comprehensive range of items. There are no plans to grant aid CCTV under the TAMS II measures. 

Overall 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 when it comes to payment claims. 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. All 11,500 approvals issued represent potential outstanding liabilities for the Department. Until these approvals mature to payment stage or the timeframe of the approval expires a budgetary provision must be available to make payments.

For this reason I am not proposing to open the scheme to new investments.