Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 9 September 2021
1571. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the intentions of his Department and progress made to date in providing grant funding for agricultural bridges and underpasses for landholders whose farms are currently divided by road, rail, river or canal; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42358/21]
View answerThere are a wide variety of items available under the suite of seven measures under TAMS. However, funding for cattle underpasses is not included. To date, total expenditure under the seven measures of the TAMS, including transitional expenditure, has reached in excess of €304m with commitments of an additional €145m made to scheme participants who have yet to draw down those grants.
Some 43,588 applications have been approved under the scheme. All outstanding approvals issued represent potential outstanding liabilities for the 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 such as cattle underpasses to the comprehensive list of investment items already available under TAMS II.
No decision has been made in relation to the interventions to be included in the CAP Strategic Plan (CSP)(2023-2027). To allow for the submission of the draft CSP by the 1st January 2022, the Department is currently undertaking a public consultation on the draft CSP and written submissions were invited from interested parties by the closing date of 3rd September 2021.
