Michael Lowry (Tipperary, Independent)
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1167. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if measures will be introduced to allow applications for funding to construct underpasses for the movement of livestock in view of the fact that it is a health and safety issue for farmers and road users; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19131/19]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The expenditure on TAMS II to date is over €128m and my Department continues to issue payments at a rate of over €1.2m every week. There are currently approximately 10,000 TAMs approvals which have yet to be claimed for payment and there is also a commitment in place to open more tranches of the scheme up to the end of 2020. It is expected that the budget of €395m for the period of the RDP will be fully spent.

The inclusion of additional items such as underpasses on the list of eligible items available for grant aid under could only be considered in the context of the overall budgetary position and I am not proposing their inclusion for the reasons outlined above.