Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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971. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if contractors will be allowed to avail of funding under the LESS scheme; if consideration will be given to funding conversion kits for existing machinery for either farmers or contractors; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20754/20]

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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973. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans to December 2020 to expand the LESS scheme to allow contractors to apply; his further plans or to allow farmers to avail of the grant if they employ a licensed contractor using LESS equipment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20756/20]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 971 and 973 together.

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 €28 milion funded to date for LESS investments under TAMS II.

Grant aid for conversion kits is not currently covered under the TAMS II Schemes.  It is not planned at present to make any change to the investment list to include these items for all farmers. Full details of these investments and all the TAMS II measures can be found on the Department's website.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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972. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the funding available under the LESS scheme in each of the years 2015 to 2019 and to date in 2020; and the amount of funding drawn down by person and county in tabular form. [20755/20]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The available budget for the LESS scheme for 2016 to 2020 is as outlined below. The average grant payment amount per application for LESS investments is €12,618.20. The breakdown by county of LESS payments for TAMS II is also outlined below.

2016: €2.600m

2017: €3.182m

2018: €3.853m

2019: €5.655m

2020: €8.400m

TAMS II - Grant payments For LESS Investments By County

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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974. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the amount of funding made available under the BEAM scheme to date; and the amount drawn down by county and year in tabular form. [20757/20]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The objective of the Beef Exceptional Aid Measure (BEAM) is to provide temporary exceptional adjustment aid to farmers in the beef sector in Ireland subject to the conditions set out in EU Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1132.  BEAM is funded by a combination of EU aid and Exchequer support, provided in light of the difficult circumstances that Irish beef farmers have been facing as a result of market volatility and uncertainty.

BEAM payments to date amount to €77.7m.  The table below gives the breakdown by county and year.