Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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514. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the steps to be taken with regard to funding approved for works in TAMS II applications that has yet to be drawn down and which will expire by the end of 2018; the number of applicants in this position; the counties they reside in; the value of moneys approved not drawn down to date; the steps to be taken with regard to moneys approved but not drawn down; if these funds can be carried forward; and if not, if they must be returned to the Exchequer or the EU budget. [50206/18]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The budget for TAMS II for the duration of the Rural Development Programme (2014-2020) is €395m. Payment claims continue to be received and processed on an ongoing basis as is the case with applications for approval. The Scheme will remain open for applications up to the end of 2020 and it is expected that the Scheme budget will be used in full.

TAMS is a demand-led Scheme and expenditure is dependent on the volume and value of payment claims received. To date, grant approvals in the amount of €280.5m have issued of which payments to the value of €94.8m have been made, with the Department continuing to pay out an average of €1.5m every week in claims.

To date 17,516 farmers have received approval to undertake investment works on their holdings. Of these, 7,408 farmers have submitted a payment claim.The remaining unclaimed commitments must be honoured until their approval expires.

It is not possible at this point to determine how many applicants will submit a payment claim between now and the end of the year and therefore a county breakdown can not be supplied.