Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 17 December 2020
664. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number waiting and the average waiting times to avail of the targeted agricultural modernisation scheme by county; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44588/20]
View answerThe TAMS II scheme operates on a rolling tranche-by-tranche basis. While the Deputy asked for data on a county basis, it must be remembered that TAMS II is a national scheme that operates countrywide. The application and closing dates are the same for every applicant irrespective of which county they are in.
To date, over 45,500 applications have been received and 34,500 of those have been approved to proceed. Tranche 19 closed on 13th November 2020. 3,224 new applications were received under this tranche and these applications, together with the 1,086 applications rolled over from tranche 18, will undergo the ranking and selection process shortly.
If an application is unsuccessful at ranking and selection, it is automatically rolled over in to the next tranche. Due to the TAMS tranche based system, an application received at the beginning of a tranche cannot be considered for approval until after the tranche is closed, at which stage all of the applications are passed through the ranking and selection process.
It should also be noted that TAMS payment applications may require additional supporting documentation or clarification after submission and this will extend the length of time between a payment application being received and paid. The average length of time between payment claim submission and approval is 56 days.
Payments under TAMS II have now exceeded €248m in respect of over 18,000 payment claims and continue to issue at an average rate of €1.4m per week.
