Robert O'Donoghue (Dublin Fingal West, Labour)
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606. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine for an update on the development of llama and alpaca herds in Ireland; the estimated numbers of such in each of the years 2020 to 2024; what financial supports exist; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5896/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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My Department's livestock database does not maintain a specific herd category for llamas and alpacas. Operators keeping these species are required to be registered with the Department and to obtain a herd number. The livestock species associated with these herd numbers is "other" and it is not currently possible to extract camelid specific herds from this category. A new category of camelidae is currently being programmed for and in the near future more accurate statistics will be available in relation to the numbers of such herds.

Farmers keeping llamas and alpacas may be eligible to apply for support under the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS). Once the farmer has a Department identifier and BISS application for at least 5ha, they are eligible to apply for TAMS supports. There are a number of detailed supporting documents in relation to TAMS available on my Department’s webpage by clicking on the link “schemes and payments”.