Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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49. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if underpasses will be eligible for inclusion under the next tranche of TAMS; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33304/20]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The suite of seven TAMS II measures launched under the Rural Development Programme 2014-2020 have been very successful to date in terms of uptake with the number of approvals that have issued reaching over 32,000 to date.  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 18,000 payment claims have been received to date. Payment claims submitted continue to be paid on an on-going basis.  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 of €395m.

There are a huge variety of items available under the suite of seven TAMS measures. Cattle underpasses are expensive, relative to other capital investments under the scheme, and any request for new investments can only be considered in light of the overall scheme budget available. I have no plans to add this investment item.

I would point out that payments under TAMS II have now reached €250m with a further €130m committed in approvals. Payments are currently issuing at an average rate of €1.4m per week and I would encourage all participants who have completed approved works to submit their payment claims as soon as they are in a position to do so.