Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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900. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he has considered introducing financial supports for small agricultural contracting businesses given that many do not qualify for funding schemes for farmers and are struggling to afford the cost of updating equipment to comply with environmental standards; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4009/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Contractors are small businesses and, as such, are entitled to the supports that all other small business are entitled. My Department does not have any specific supports for contractors.

TAMS is the capital investment scheme for on-farm developments. The EU regulations that govern the scheme under the Rural Development Programme (RDP) 2014 – 2020, set out that TAMS II beneficiaries must be farmers or groups of farmers. Therefore, the Department is precluded from funding the purchase of equipment such as Low Emission Slurry Spreading (LESS) equipment by contractors under TAMS II.

Under the terms and conditions for the LESS measure, the scheme is open to farmers who:

i. hold a Department identifier, and

ii. prior to submitting the online TAMS II application have a minimum of 5 hectares of “eligible land” owned and/or leased or rented which have been declared under the Basic Payment Scheme or equivalent in the year of application or preceding year, or

iii. are engaged in the breeding, rearing or fattening of pigs and have a minimum of 60 production units at the time of application in accordance with Annex B of the Scheme.

The Department is fully committed to encouraging the use of this equipment. Over €35 million has been paid to date for investments in LESS equipment under TAMS II. The interest in the LESS measure of TAMS II has been very strong with 5,408 farmers approved to purchase machinery to date.