Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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591. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform’s spending review of the TAMS 2 scheme (details supplied). [32203/18]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The level of expenditure within the TAMS II Schemes is being monitored  and approvals and payments continue on an on going basis.

The budget allocation for the RDP period is €395m. The annual budget allocations are the subject of discussions with DPER.

A spending review of the TAMS Schemes was undertaken by DPER in October 2017. At that stage the level of drawdown was relatively low compared to the approvals that were in place for investments under the Scheme. The current situation is that weekly payments in the past 8 months have averaged over €1.1m in respect of completed investments. Expenditure on the Scheme to date has reached €64m. The Department has taken steps to address the unpredictability of expenditure under the Scheme by shortening the window between the date of approval and submission of payment claim for works completed.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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592. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when he plans to introduce grant aid for feed bins for the drystock sector similar to that available in the dairy sector. [32204/18]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The TAMS II Scheme has been very successful to date in terms of uptake with the number of approvals that have issued reaching 15,000.  All of these approvals represent committed expenditure and until such time as these approvals are acted upon or expire the budget for TAMS must include provision for the potential expenditure involved. 

Of the applications approved just over 5,000 payment claims have been received to date. Payment claims submitted continue to be paid on an on-going basis.  All participants who have completed approved works have been urged to submit their payment claims immediately to facilitate early payment. Until the approvals issued to applicants are acted upon and payment claims are submitted or expire without a payment claim being submitted the budgetary position is that additional investment items cannot be accommodated within the RDP budget.

There are no plans currently to introduce feed bins for the drystock sector in the TAMS II Schemes.