Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 16 October 2019
200. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the extent to which grant funding remains available for qualified or unqualified farmers for the construction of on-farm underpasses and bridges in cases in which health and safety standards have dropped significantly due to increased vehicular traffic levels; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42566/19]
Amharc ar fhreagraThere are a huge variety of items available under the suite of seven measures under TAMS II. The financial allocation in respect of TAMS for the full Rural Development Programme period will be in the region of €395m. To date, total expenditure, including transitional expenditure, has reached €170m and payments continue to issue at the average rate of €1.4m per week.
23,800 applications have been approved under the scheme. The position is that all outstanding approvals issued represent potential outstanding liabilities for my Department and we must have a budget in place to pay these claims. As a result, it is not possible to consider adding additional items including cattle underpasses to the comprehensive list of investment items already available under TAMS II.
