Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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154. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the grants available to agricultural contractors that are SMEs and not farmers do not have a herd number that wish to purchase slurry spreading machinery which has low emissions and is environmentally friendly in line with climate action policy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8917/19]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The EU regulations that govern the TAMS II Schemes under the Rural Development Programme, 2014-2020 dictate that the recipients must be farmers, or groups of farmers.

Therefore the Department is precluded from funding the purchase of LESS (Low Emission Slurry Spreading) equipment by contractors under TAMS II. The Department is, however, committed to the use of this equipment with over 660 applications funded to date under the LESS measure under TAMS II.