Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Scheme (TAMS 3) provides grants to farmers to build and/or improve a specified range of farm buildings and equipment on their holdings. The scheme has proved very popular, with an unprecedented level of applications received (almost four times the average number received per tranche under TAMS 2).

Applications received across all of the measures in Tranche 1 are currently being processed.

An application for grant aid was submitted by the persons named under the Dairy Equipment Scheme on 8 June 2023.

In this case the application has passed all administrative checks and will now proceed to further detailed evaluation. My Department will be in contact with the persons named if necessary during this process, with approvals issuing to successful applications once that exercise is complete.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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260. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of participants in the ACRES scheme; the number for which the Department have received the scorecard from the relevant ACRES advisors; the number of these that have been checked and validated to date; whether when this is done if participants will be informed of the detailed outcome and given a chance to appeal the scoring before payment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45883/23]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme, or ACRES, is the central agri-environment climate measure in Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan (CSP) 2023-2027. It is a flagship agri-environmental project with funding of €1.5bn committed over the scheme lifetime. This is the largest amount ever committed to an agri-environment scheme. ACRES will play a huge role in driving environmental improvements while also providing crucial income support to farm families.

As of October 17^ththere are:

• 45,650 active ACRES contracts under Tranche 1.
• 28,945 of these contracts include parcels or actions where scorecards are required to be submitted by farm advisors. This excludes commonage scoring as these are submitted by the ACRES CP teams.
• Over 98% of the scorecards have been submitted.
• The validation of the scorecards submitted is not an isolated process and will take place with all other necessary pre-payment validation checks. In order to process payments as quickly as possible, the opportunity to appeal the scores allocated will be granted at a time after payments have been made.