Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 2 March 2023
313. Deputy Paul Kehoe asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he can reconsider the rules excluding robotics farmers from the new TAMS scheme (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10599/23]
View answerI was pleased to recently announce the new and expanded range of investments under TAMS 3. This makes it our largest every on-farm capital investment scheme. I have introduced some changes to TAMS under TAMS 3 to continue to align it with overall agriculture and environmental priorities.
On the dairy sector, the list of potential investments is larger than ever before. In addition to the investments being carried over from TAMS II there is a wide range of additional investments being introduced for farmers, including farm roadways, bovine fencing, health and fertility monitoring systems, automatic drafting systems, public road underpasses and milk recording systems.
When a farmer is planning to update their dairy system, investment in the milking machine is only a portion of the required investment. It is important that dairy farmers also invest in animal housing, slurry storage, fodder storage and making their holding more accessible. To this end the TAMS schemes are designed to encourage farmers to invest in these animal welfare and environmentally beneficial investments before investing in additional milking equipment. It is for this reason that there are limits on robotic milkers where farmers have previously benefitted from this under the TAMS scheme before.
