Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 22 February 2024
54. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide an update on the women farmers' capital investment scheme under TAMS III; if there will be review of eligibility criteria for the scheme given low numbers of approved applications; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8153/24]
View answerThis question asks for an update on the women farmers' capital investment scheme under TAMS. Will the Minister advise whether he will seek to review the eligibility criteria for the scheme given the very low number of approved applications and given that concerns had been raised by the Women in Agriculture Stakeholders Group about the criteria set out for the knowledge transfer and for the scheme under TAMS before the approvals were made?
I thank Deputy Kerrane for raising this very important issue. I remind the House that the rationale behind the establishment of this new element of TAMS was to further develop gender equality throughout the agriculture sphere, to encourage more capital investment on farms and, in many instances, to recognise the role that many females already play on farms throughout the country, in the day-to-day work and in managerial decision-making positions. For historical reasons, and because their names are not on the system, these individual females are not recognised by the Department or the State for their contribution. To encourage this is the key ambition behind everything we are doing.
The women farmers' capital investment scheme is one of the measures in the targeted agriculture modernisation scheme, TAMS, 3, which provides grants to farmers to build and-or improve a specified range of farm buildings and equipment on their holdings. As Deputy Kerrane is aware, an indicative overall budget of €370 million is available for the period from 2023 to 2027. All investments must be linked to climate, environment or animal welfare. TAMS 3 has been very popular, with an unprecedented level of applications received, at almost four times the average number received per tranche under TAMS 2. Good interest has been shown in the women farmers' capital investment scheme. A total of 259 applications were received under tranche 1 and a further 438 applications were received under tranche 2, which closed on 19 January 2024. To date, 68 approval letters have issued to tranche 1 applicants and approvals continue to issue daily. It is important to remember we outlined back in January that in the granting and processing system we are working through, the women TAMS, for want of a better description, was one of the last to open, which it did in June of last year. The solar scheme was the first to open and the first to be processed. We are working through them and we will clear them in the coming weeks. We had a meeting with officials on it yesterday and we are making good progress on it.
I thank the Minister of State for his response. It is welcome that 68 of the 259 applications that have been submitted have been approved and letters have been issued. Obviously there is a long way to go with the remaining applications. I presume the Department is getting through them as quickly as possible. This is important. I want to raise again the issue of the limiting eligibility criteria. This has been raised for months, especially by the Women in Agriculture Stakeholders Group. It had flagged that the criteria as set out could lock women out of accessing these supports. We know that to qualify under the new scheme, women farmers must have been part of the farming enterprise in 2022 or have completed an agricultural qualification. The Women in Agriculture Stakeholders Group raised these as issues locking women out of accessing the TAMS support in the first place. I ask that the remaining applications be progressed as quickly as possible and that the Minister of State look to review the scheme's eligibility. One of the recommendations in the national women in agriculture action plan looks at scheme eligibility requirements and the need for them to be reviewed. I ask that this be done, perhaps after final approvals are made in the scheme.
I thank the Deputy Kerrane. We keep a constant review on all elements of TAMS. It does evolve. There are no plans at present to change eligibility criteria for the women farmers' capital investment scheme or any other element of TAMS, but TAMS 3, as were previous TAMS, has been monitored and followed through with regard to how we might change it.
With regard to the point on the work that has been done today to get us to this point, the total of 700 applications shows good interest in it. No doubt we will have more under TAMS 3. We are working through processing them as quickly as possible. It is important to highlight we have been very flexible with regard to mobile equipment. The women farmers' capital investment scheme is very similar to the young farmer capital investment scheme. It is quite complex because it covers every aspect of capital investment and not just one specific element. For example, farm safety has many mobile pieces and it is easier to process. The other is very complex as there could be very large capital investment schemes availing of a 60% grant. We have to have strict conditionality on this to protect the public interest.
I appreciate that schemes such as TAMS are constantly examined with regard to eligibility criteria. Again I make the point that the Women in Agriculture Stakeholders Group has raised issues for months about the eligibility criteria for TAMS and for knowledge transfer. Given that it has raised these concerns, I ask that specifically the payment under TAMS for the women farmers' capital investment scheme and the specific eligibility criteria for the scheme be looked at.
Will the Minister of State give a timeline for the remaining approvals? There are quite a number to get through, with 68 out of 259 approved. Will the Minister of State give a timeline for the remaining applications in tranche 1?
The officials are making good progress through them. We hope to have them all cleared in early April. Good progress is being made in this regard.
I acknowledge the work of the Women in Agriculture Stakeholders Group, which has led the way on this. We were very happy to work on its early proposals. As things evolve and change, we keep an eye on its requests.
To go back to the point, we have to protect the public good and ensure any scheme we have is not open to being used for purposes other than what it is designed for. I know that issues regarding herd numbers have been raised. We have to safeguard the integrity of the overall system so that we do not undermine it for those 700 who qualify. We will keep it under review, as we do with all elements of TAMS. Right now, our priority is to process the 700 women in agriculture capital investment applications as quickly as possible.
