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Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 3 November 2020

Tuesday, 3 November 2020

Questions (68)

Seán Sherlock

Question:

68. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans to fund the remaining applications under tranche 17 and 18 of TAMS II before tranche 19 is decided. [33522/20]

View answer

Written answers

The suite of seven TAMS II measures launched under the Rural Development Programme 2014-2020 have been very popular with over 32,000 approvals issued to date.

Until approvals issued to applicants are acted upon and payment claims are submitted or they expire without a payment claim being submitted, a budgetary provision must be maintained. My Department has engaged with advisers and farm bodies to encourage farmers with outstanding approvals to either submit the payment claim or to inform the Department that they do now wish to proceed. If they do not proceed and we are aware this means we can recycle the committed budget for another applicant.

The position in relation to Tranche 17 of TAMS II is that the tranche was extended due to Covid-19 resulting in a 21-week tranche. A total of 4,952 new applications were received. There were considered together with the applications rolled over from tranche 16. As with all tranches all applications received were ranked in accordance with the set ranking procedure. Details of the ranking and selection criteria are widely available including on my Department’s website since TAMS II opened in 2015. The top ranked 70% of the applications received were approved to proceed.

In relation to Tranche 18, 3,448 applications were received and together with the 1,116 eligible applications rolled over from Tranche 17 bringing the total number of applications for consideration to 4,564. These were once again ranked and the top 70% of applications were selected for approval.

It is open to applicants to withdraw an unsuccessful application and submit a new one under a subsequent tranche bearing in mind the ranking criteria.

Payments under TAMS have now reached €250m with a further €130m committed in approvals. Payments are currently issuing at an average rate of €1.4m per week. I was very pleased to secure a budget of €80m for 2021 to provide for payments, including provision for those approved under tranches 17 and 18. Participants who have completed approved works are advised to submit their payment claims as soon as they are in a position to do so.

The suite of seven TAMS II measures launched under the Rural Development Programme 2014-2020 have been very popular with over 32,000 approvals issued to date.

Until approvals issued to applicants are acted upon and payment claims are submitted or they expire without a payment claim being submitted, a budgetary provision must be maintained. My Department has engaged with advisers and farm bodies to encourage farmers with outstanding approvals to either submit the payment claim or to inform the Department that they do now wish to proceed. If they do not proceed and we are aware this means we can recycle the committed budget for another applicant.

The position in relation to Tranche 17 of TAMS II is that the tranche was extended due to Covid-19 resulting in a 21-week tranche. A total of 4,952 new applications were received. There were considered together with the applications rolled over from tranche 16. As with all tranches all applications received were ranked in accordance with the set ranking procedure. Details of the ranking and selection criteria are widely available including on my Department’s website since TAMS II opened in 2015. The top ranked 70% of the applications received were approved to proceed.

In relation to Tranche 18, 3,448 applications were received and together with the 1,116 eligible applications rolled over from Tranche 17 bringing the total number of applications for consideration to 4,564. These were once again ranked and the top 70% of applications were selected for approval.

It is open to applicants to withdraw an unsuccessful application and submit a new one under a subsequent tranche bearing in mind the ranking criteria.

Payments under TAMS have now reached €250m with a further €130m committed in approvals. Payments are currently issuing at an average rate of €1.4m per week. I was very pleased to secure a budget of €80m for 2021 to provide for payments, including provision for those approved under tranches 17 and 18. Participants who have completed approved works are advised to submit their payment claims as soon as they are in a position to do so.

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