Vol. 1044 No. 6
57. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will examine the possibility of utilising Brexit adjustment reserve funding to support farmers before the end of 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46771/23]
I ask the Minister about the Brexit adjust reserve, BAR, fund. There is approximately €150 million remaining in it. The Minister might be able to confirm that figure in his response. Given the importance of the fund and the many crises that farmers are facing across the board, does the Minister intend to spend any more of the money in the fund before returning it to Europe at the end of the year?
I thank the Deputy for her question. With the indulgence of the House, I note at the outset that we do not have any questions at the top of the ranking on the list in respect of payments. That is a reflection of the hard work that the payments section has done in recent times to work through the new Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, and to pay out significant payments. Some 90% of the applicants for the new basic payment or basic income supplement scheme are being paid this week. I say that in the context that today is the last day in the Department for the assistant secretary in charge of the payments section, Mr. Paul Dillon. He has been a civil servant for 43 years and has given great service in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and other Departments throughout his career. He is a rock of sense, practicality and pragmatism. He works very hard and is a representation of what is great about our Civil Service. I wish him well on his final day. I know the House will join me in that sentiment. I thank the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach and Deputy Kerrane for their indulgence.
On the Deputy's question, my Department has worked on a continuous basis to access BAR funding. As a result of that approach, my Department has been the most successful across the Government in securing funds from what was a very restrictive set of eligibility conditions.
The BAR fund is under the remit of my colleague, the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery, and Reform, Deputy Donohoe, and his Department. My officials and I engage closely with that Department in analysing and assessing potential measures eligible to be funded from BAR to support of the agrifood sector. The fund was put in place by the EU to provide financial support to the most affected member states to counter the adverse impacts of Brexit. We have drawn down significant funding, particularly for fisheries, but also this year for the beef welfare scheme and the new genomics scheme, which deals with the genomic testing and sequencing of our national herd.
We have at all times been open to suggestions and have explored suggestions in respect of the BAR. It has been our objective to draw down funding in every way we could find that was eligible.
I thank the Minister. I share his good wishes for Mr. Dillon. After a very long career, I wish him the very best for a long, happy and healthy retirement.
Perhaps the Minister could confirm in his supplementary response the amount of money that is left in the BAR fund. Does he intend to spend anything further on agriculture for farmers? I met representatives of the Irish Grain Growers yesterday, as did the Minister. He will know they are looking for a package of approximately €2 million for unharvested crops. As tillage farmers, they have seen a once-in-a-generation wipeout at a time when we need to be promoting tillage and when we have targets to meet for growing tillage. Their request is for €2 million from what I understand is a €150 million fund. Is there any way that money can be spent? I know and understand there is a Brexit element to this, which is obvious. However, Bord Bia got €1.5 million to promote organics. I am not sure what the Brexit link is in that regard. The same applies to sheep farmers, which is an issue I have raised many times. I have asked the farm organisations to come to the Minister with proposals on behalf of sheep farmers. With the deal done between New Zealand and the UK, and with the level of the exchange rate, those sheep farmers have been impacted. I ask the Minister to consider both of those sectors in the context of this fund.
I thank the Deputy. We have received proposals from different representative organisations and have been very keen to encourage people to bring proposals to us in recent years. Each proposal we have received has been assessed, and we have worked to make such proposals eligible for the BAR scheme in any way we can. It has been my objective to do everything possible to draw down BAR funding for the agriculture and fisheries sectors. The fisheries sector was significantly impacted by Brexit in that we had a direct loss to quota at the outset. I have now implemented more than 12 schemes that the task force recommended to me. I have implemented each and every one of them. However, the fisheries sector clearly met the criteria, which was helpful. It is more tricky on the agricultural side because exports have increased since Brexit. In those years, prices have held up strongly, and, in fact, improved over much of that time, although it will be more challenging this year given the market conditions.
I am very much conscious of what the future challenges might be. That is a matter which I will continue to monitor closely. In each and every way we could find to draw down BAR funding, we did so.
Again, I make the point that sending about €150 million back to Europe to a REPowerEU fund is really unforgivable in light of the challenges that farmers are facing. The Minister will have heard yesterday from the Irish Grain Growers of a once-in-a-generation wipeout for a lot of farmers in a sector that we want and need to grow and for which we have targets to meet. I understand that the deal has already been done as regards sending this money back to the EU at the end of the year but will that €150 million be ring-fenced? Can we seek to have it ring-fenced for Ireland and for agriculture when it goes into that new fund? Again, I cannot understand how a link to Brexit has been made in promoting organics and in the context of sheep and lamb going to England and New Zealand but a link cannot be found for tillage, or at least an attempt made to find one. We should submit the application and if it is refused and does not work out, that is fine but we should at least try.
In relation to the tillage sector, which has had a very difficult year, I have delivered three tranches of funding: €7 million from the EU; €7 million in additional funding this year through the straw incorporation scheme; and €7 million in the budget for next year. If there were ways of drawing down BAR funding for the sector I would do so but we are talking here about a particular weather event rather than a Brexit event.
I have been working to make sure that I could pull down every bit of funding possible. We are by far the largest spender in relation to the BAR fund and if there is any other way of spending more, I am keen to explore that. The Government is working to make sure that all of the Brexit funding at national level gets spent on work in the country. In terms of engaging on the REPowerEU scheme, there is a mechanism to make sure we can avail of that funding going forward. The deadline for expenditure within the BAR is the end of this year but we will try to make sure that it continues to be available to the country in another format as we go forward.
58. Deputy Verona Murphy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine how many new applications will be accepted to the agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES, scheme in the forthcoming tranche for this month; if he believes that sufficient resources have been allocated to fund this scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47056/23]
The first part of this question is very straightforward I hope a straightforward answer will follow. How many new applications will be accepted for ACRES this month? Along with thousands of farmers, I am very interested to know if the Minister believes that sufficient resources have been allocated to fund this scheme.
I secured funding of €1.5 billion for ACRES. This is the largest amount ever committed to an agri-environment scheme. The Government committed this funding to support what is the central and flagship agri-environment climate measure in Ireland’s Common Agricultural Policy Strategic Plan 2023-2027. ACRES will not only play a huge role in driving environmental improvements, it will also provide crucial income support to farm families for the work they are doing.
Interest in the scheme has been unprecedented with 46,000 applications received for the first tranche last year. In response to this environmental ambition from Irish farmers I worked to ensure that all eligible applicants were admitted last year, immediately engaging with the stakeholders to ensure that this could and would be achieved.
Through ACRES, we are leading the way in delivering a national results-based scheme, with over 25% of all agricultural production land now scored. Farmers in Ireland are being recompensed for the high quality of their habitats. This is a reflection of the investment and commitment by farmers to enhancing environmental conditions and ecosystem services for all. For example, ACRES will deliver over 500,000 trees and more than 2,000 km of hedgerows.
I referenced our CSP and the fact that the new CAP will run from this year to the end of 2027. Working with my ministerial colleague, Deputy Michael McGrath, in what was then the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, I secured a 50% increase in national co-funding for the CSP period. I am continuing to work with the Minister, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, in terms of stepping that out. This is the largest ever increase in national co-funding under CAP and it is profiled over a five-year period. As part of that 50% increase we have allocated funding to accommodate 50,000 farmers in ACRES. In our budget for next year we have profiled to step it up to that 50,000. Obviously, we will have to look to the future in terms of what will be possible but the budget allocation for next year is for an additional 4,000 farmers.
I have had lots of engagement with farmers in a variety of sectors over the four years that I have been a Deputy and I know there is a great willingness within the sectors to contribute. Farmers are very climate conscious, as is evidenced by the number of applicants for ACRES. My question is whether the Minister believes there is sufficient funding under ACRES to accommodate all of the farmers who are interested. It does not seem to me that €1.5 billion will be sufficient to accommodate 50,000 farmers.
From a climate change perspective, the reality of regulations across the sectors is that we are piling the costs onto dairy farmers at the expense of tillage farmers. We are driving up the cost of land for tillage farmers in order to accommodate dairy farmers vis-à-vis the nitrates directive. It is for good reasons that the largest amount of money ever has been allocated and the Minister knows that. Again, my question is whether we have enough money for the applicants of 2023.
Over the five-year period, the funding we have profiled for ACRES is sufficient to meet the needs of 50,000 applicants. Over the course of the next year we will get to that 50,000 figure and obviously we will then have to assess how many more farmers are in the scheme and monitor that as it goes forward. In terms of next year's budget, we will be bringing it up to the 50,000 and we have agreement and budgets in place to be able to fully fund those 50,000 farmers. It is really encouraging, but not surprising, to see the uptake because there is significant extra funding in ACRES in comparison to the previous scheme, green low-carbon agri-environment scheme, GLAS. There has been a 50% increase in ACRES funding and a 50% increase in the overall funding pot. The scheme has been well received. The scoring and the provision of extra time for that has worked well. Advisers have done great work and farmers are stepping up very strongly. I assure the Deputy that there is full funding there to meet the needs of 50,000 applicants ,but it is capped at 50,000 as things stand.
In the event that there are more than 50,000 applicants, can extra funding be drawn from somewhere? I agree with what Deputy Kerrane said earlier. I am concerned that we have such input and co-operation from our farming sector but in major sectors such as forestry, we are unable to get to grips with what should be one of our greatest assets in terms of reducing carbon emissions, which is to sow trees. We are letting farmers do it through ACRES. They are planting trees and hedges and are doing so quite efficiently but the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine cannot do it. We just cannot get to grips with it. We are penalising every other sector because we are not planting trees efficiently. If we were doing so and improving our forestry in the way we should, we would not have to be kowtowing to the EU in relation to the nitrates directive. There are other mechanisms and the Minister knows it. There are lots of other ways that we can reduce our carbon emissions but we are concentrating solely on the agricultural sector and penalising farmers to within an inch of their lives.
We have got to grips with our forestry sector. Massive work has gone into it over the past couple of years. As the Deputy knows, the outcome of a court case in 2019 radically changed the way each licence had to be assessed. This led to a big backlog in licence applications but we have now worked our way through that. Anybody applying for a forestry licence today will receive it within six months if it does not require an impact assessment or within nine months if such an assessment is needed. We have dealt with that and the system is now very close to equilibrium. We have also introduced a new forestry scheme which has increased the premiums available to farmers on an annual basis by up to 66%. We have also increased the number of years that a farm family can avail of premiums from 15 to 20. We have put massive resources and investment into forestry and have also put significant funding into tillage. We have invested heavily in ACRES which is why we are seeing such a strong uptake.
59. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he intends to extend the deadline to submit receipts for the national liming programme past 31 October next, considering basic income support scheme payments have not yet been made and many farmers are facing serious financial constraints; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46847/23]
I want to ask about the national liming programme. While I welcome the fact that the deadline for lime to be spread has been extended, receipts have to be submitted by farmers by Tuesday next.
Can there be flexibility in that regard? Many farmers cannot spread lime on their land right now. I do not see why they should have to buy lime at a time when they have had high input costs. The BISS was paid just this week and many of them are under financial pressure. Can there be a level of flexibility in respect of receipts being submitted?
As the Deputy is aware, on 6 October I announced important flexibility to the lime-spreading deadline under the national liming programme. While the deadline of 31 October remains in place for receipt of claims, and for payment for lime, applicants now have until 31 March 2024 to spread their approved quantity of lime. Approximately 38,500 farmers have been approved for the programme. The extension to the spreading deadline was granted in response to the very challenging weather conditions this year which have significantly impacted soil trafficability.
The programme is supported by the Exchequer as a once-off measure in 2023 in response to the war in Ukraine. There is no funding provision available for the programme next year. Claims for payment, including invoices and receipts with proof of payment, therefore must be submitted by 31 October. This is necessary to allow all administrative checks to be completed this year in order to facilitate payments in 2023 and ensure farmers get paid the funding to cover the money they paid out this year.
On the issue of cashflow on farms, I accept there have been changes to payment dates this year due to the significant changes arising from this being the first year of the CAP strategic plan. As the Deputy is aware, I wrote to farmers in March to outline the payment dates this year. We are delivering on those payment dates. Indeed, on Tuesday, 90% of applicants for a single farm payment or BISS payment had payments issued to their bank accounts. Those payments are landing in bank accounts as we speak and more will arrive in the coming days.
Last week I announced an advance payment under the areas of natural constraint, ANC, scheme. That involved payments totalling €179 million to more than 85,000 farmers. The eco scheme will be paid next Tuesday. We wanted to accommodate farmers as much as possible. We took significant steps in that regard. The team is closely monitoring the intake. I encourage farmers to purchase lime. It makes a lot of sense for them to do so, even without a grant. The grant is an added incentive for farmers to do something that will improve soil fertility but also particularly improve farm profitability and level.
I welcome the fact that the deadline for spreading has been pushed out to next year. I do not see why a farmer would buy lime now that they potentially will not be able to spread until next year, particularly when many of them do not have the money to do so. The BISS payments will make a big difference but they have just hit farmers' bank accounts. In some cases they have not hit accounts due to satellite imaging and the changes thereto. Some farmers will have to respond with more information in that regard before they get their payment. I am unsure how many farmers have been affected by that issue and have not received a BISS payment as a result but there are people who have not received it. Even a week or two would make a difference. I do not see why a farmer would buy lime to sit in a farmyard until next year when there will potentially be an opportunity to spread it. In many cases, the weather in October did not allowed for it to be spread. I ask the Minister to consider allowing flexibility of a week or two, even just to allow farmers to receive their BISS payments in and give them a little leeway after what has been, as he stated, a challenging and expensive year. I have heard from farmers directly on this matter and they are under pressure financially.
I am closely monitoring the situation. I want as many farmers as possible to avail of this. Not enough farmers are spreading lime. It used to be done far more and it needs to be done far more in future. It will help to ensure farmers have more profitability for the work they carry out. That is why, this year, I put in place for the first time a lime scheme. It was great to see the uptake, with almost 40,000 farmers applying for it. I want to make sure as many of them as possible follow through in that regard and do it. The more farmers we can get spreading lime this year, the more will see the benefit of it and continue that practice into the future. I have delivered a significant amount of flexibility in respect of the scheme and I encourage farmers to push on in terms of making their purchases and uploading their receipts by 31 October. I take on board the Deputy's comments and am closely monitoring the situation but I have to work within what is possible with regard to making sure we get those payments to farmers this year. We are running into a very short timeframe now and we have given flexibility. I am closely monitoring the situation.
In light of all that, I ask the Minister to check with the Department how many of the more than 38,000 farmers who applied to the scheme have submitted receipts. Farmers are under pressure and input costs have never been higher. There were delays to the BISS, as the Minister acknowledged, due to this being the first year of the new CAP. It is fine for the Minister to say that but farmers are under pressure to buy lime before next Tuesday and leave it to sit it in a yard where it cannot be spread in the first place. Will the Minister check how many farmers have submitted receipts? That will allow him to see if there is pressure there, as I believe there is, and decide whether there can be a level of flexibility. A week would make a difference, particularly for farmers who are receiving a BISS payment.
I am considering that and monitoring it closely. I want as much follow through as possible in respect of farmers purchasing lime and spreading it. I am closely monitoring it daily and getting feedback from farmers. I have to balance the need to ensure farmers get paid and the need to utilise the budget this year for it. Many farmers spread lime earlier this year too. It has been much more challenging to do so in recent months. Those who spread it earlier in the year have uploaded their receipts. That is good to see. We want to make sure the biggest number possible of those who applied follow through and spread that lime by the end of March, however. I am monitoring it closely and will be doing the best I can to get as many in as possible. We set the scheme up to try to incentivise this behaviour and back farmers to do it. We want to get people back to doing it so that everybody will see the benefit of it again. I want as much of that as possible come to fruition. I thank the Deputy for raising the matter.
60. Deputy Verona Murphy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine what direct engagement he has had with tillage stakeholders; if he acknowledges that the emergency support package for tillage farmers needs to be more targeted towards tillage farmers unsuccessful in harvesting; if he acknowledges the need for targeted supports for the sector to ensure viability into 2024; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47057/23]
What direct engagement has the Minister had with tillage stakeholders? Has he acknowledged the emergency support package for tillage farmers needs to be increased and targeted more towards tillage farmers who have been unsuccessful in harvesting? Will he acknowledge the need to target supports for the sector to ensure viability into 2024?
I have been in regular contact with farming organisations and farm groups on issues relating to the tillage sector. Yesterday, I met with one of the stakeholders, namely, the Irish Grain Growers, and last week I met the IFA tillage committee to discuss the challenging situation in the sector at the moment in the light of the poor harvest.
Earlier this year, I specifically requested and secured support for the sector from the EU agriculture reserve in light of the significant challenges relating to the weather and harvest this year. A support package of €7.1 million has been allocated to the sector under this fund. A one-off flat-rate payment of €28 per hectare will be made on the area of oilseed rape, winter and spring barley, wheat and rye declared under the BISS this year. Payments will be made on a minimum area of 5 ha and capped at 100 ha per grower.
In the budget announced two weeks ago, I secured an additional €8 million in funding that will be specifically targeted at the sector. I am currently engaging with farming organisations on the best way to utilise this funding. Obviously, some farmers have not yet harvested their grain. The farming organisations have made that point to me. I am open to their suggestions and will work with them to see how we can best utilise and structure the funding I got in the budget announced two weeks ago.
Fertiliser is a major input cost on tillage farms. To support organic nutrient utilisation where it is needed, I will be engaging with the European Commission to allow the introduction of a 70% TAMS 3 support measure for manure storage facilities on farms importing livestock manure under a contract relationship. I am also seeking to secure a separate investment ceiling of €90,000 for slurry storage investments.
I strongly support the tillage sector and have done so in recent years. I doubled the annual budget for the protein aid scheme from €3 million to €7 million. The tillage incentive scheme resulted in payments of approximately €11 million to scheme applicants in the past two years. Importantly, the straw incorporation measure I introduced for the first time has paid €19.5 million so far and I have allocated an extra €7 million to it this year in recognition of the pressures on tillage farmers.
It is difficult for me to continuously say that farmers are unhappy, but they are unhappy. All I ever hear from the Minister is what he has done and how it is the largest amount. Farming has never been in such a poor situation. I, too, attended a meeting with the IFA. It was held the night before the budget announcement and it was such a depressing meeting. The 70-odd dairy and tillage farmers who were there did not want to speak. The Minister of State, Deputy James Browne, who was present, stood up and said that the Minister had made an announcement off the cuff.
The Minister got €7 million and he wanted it out there straight away. He offered the farmers €28 a hectare for an input cost of €600. What part of that is worthy of a slap on the back? I am not trying to be funny but this is our most important sector. When the farmers are gone, they are gone. The Minister needs to tell the public what it means when they are gone. He needs to tell the public that when we are eating beef that has not been sustainably farmed in Ireland, not only will it double in cost but it will be horrible. There will be no taste off it. The cost of living and the shopping basket will increase further. That is what the Minister needs to tell the people, because the farmers know.
I appreciate the Deputy raising the issue here today. The Deputy's colleagues, the Minister of State, Deputy Browne, Senator Malcolm Byrne and Deputy Kehoe, have been in touch with me on numerous occasions and have updated me in detail on that meeting and the outcome of it. Nobody is looking for slaps on the back here. We are looking to see how we can support the sector through what is a really-----
Eleven euro an acre warrants a slap somewhere else.
-----unprecedented and difficult time. I want to see the tillage sector grow in this country over the years ahead. For the first time in the past two years, we have seen a 6% growth in the area under tillage. The really challenging situation this year is going to put real pressure on that. That is something I want to support the sector with over the next period. As I said, a few weeks ago we added an extra €7 million. There is €7 million on top of that from the European Commission, which will be paid in January. That gives us €14 million. There is also the other €7 million that was secured in the budget two weeks ago, which brings us to €21 million in support for the sector. I am working closely with the representative groups to see how we can best target that. While it has been a difficult year for everyone, it has been an existentially challenging year for some tillage farmers. I want to work with their representatives to make sure we target the funding we have made available at Government level in a way that provides the support to those who most need it.
I appreciate that it does need to be targeted. That is something the sector itself believes. I am not letting the Minister off. He plied his trade going around the marts throughout the country. I was at one of them. If I had been a farmer, I would not have attended another one. The Minister has not been challenged in the media because his message is now so efficient from how he learned to get it off by heart. We are an agricultural economy, and I can tell the Minister the farmers no longer feel supported by Government. It is plain to see. Every time I go to a meeting, I am asked what the Minister and this Government has sold us out in Europe for, and if it will be ten years down the line before we learn. Nobody in their right mind would do what the Government is doing to farming. The Minister of State, Senator Hackett, quoted figures on the Department meeting targets on forestry licences. It has not met one of the targets - not one. I have the file to prove it. The Minister of State said the Department was way ahead of the targets and had met all the requirements. It has not. It is spin, and it continues to be spin, while the Government is absolutely denigrating the whole agricultural sector. The Minister says he wants tillage and the policy is to improve tillage. He is selling out our dairy herd. They are leasing land at double the price they should be, which is decimating the tillage sector. What part of that does the Minister, as an intelligent man, not understand?
The Deputy is an expert at the spin and the criticism herself. She is not offering many solutions or anything constructive. As I said, I have been working with the Deputy's three Government colleagues in Wexford on an ongoing basis over recent weeks on this issue. It is good to engage with the Deputy this morning on it.
Solutions? Cut the price of hydrotreated vegetable oil.
One speaker only, please.
Let us use diesel and grow trees. There are loads of solutions.
A Theachta, you are out of order.
The Deputy majors in giving out and trying to show, through giving out, that maybe she might be doing something for someone.
Giving out? The Minister should go to a mart and see how depressing they are.
That is her modus operandi, and she has her approach well off by heart. There is also-----
Eleven euro an acre.
The Deputy might not like giving other people a chance. I know she likes to give out plenty and to hold the platform. In relation to tillage-----
The platform is right. If the cap fits, wear it.
The Deputy is out of order.
If the Deputy wants to speak to herself, she can go off and shout on local radio. I am working to try to support the sector through a difficult year and to make sure it grows in the future and will continue to do so.
It is the same message; it does not matter.
We will move on to the next question, Uimh. 61.
61. Deputy Danny Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if dribble bar slurry tanks will be included for grant aid; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47191/23]
I ask the Minister if dribble bar slurry tanks will be included in grant aid; and if he will make a statement on the matter
As the Deputy is aware, the targeted agriculture modernisation scheme, TAMS, 3 provides grants to farmers to build or improve a specified range of farm buildings and equipment on their holdings. There is an indicative budget of €370 million available for the period 2022 to 2027, whereby all investments are linked to climate, environment or animal welfare. Following the success of TAMS 2, I have increased significantly the number of investments available to in excess of 430 items. There is analysis taking place on the emission factor of the dribble bar compared with the trailing shoe. I am awaiting the outcome of this analysis before making a decision on the inclusion of the dribble bar in TAMS 3. Investment items and ceilings for grant aid are under constant review, and additional investment items may be included for consideration when evaluating further updates to the TAMS 3 investment lists.
I will be considering it and I have not ruled it out. However, in making State investments and in providing the very significant support that is available, we want to make sure it supports farmers and that it is an effective long-term investment. I increased the grant aid available for the trailing shoe to 60% in TAMS 3 compared with 40% last time around, so that the cost to the farmer will be similar to what the dribble bar would have been. Certainly, some of the early advice indicates the trailing shoe is a lot more effective than the dribble bar from an emissions and nutrient point of view, but I am getting that reviewed. I have had many farmers approach me on the issue. In some parts of the country, farmers feel the dribble bar is more navigable. My mind is open on this. I am waiting for the advice so that I can consider whether to include it in the next tranche.
I thank the Minister for his response. I recently met with representatives of the Irish Farmers' Association, who discussed the issue of the dribble bar and the fact that grant aid needs to be increased. They were saying the use of the dribble bar actually does help reduce emissions, and there is substantial research to support that. While the increase in the grant aid for the trailing shoe has been welcomed by some farmers whom that suits, there are other farmers with small and medium-sized holdings who may not have a tractor with sufficient power. It is my understanding the trailing shoe will only work with a high-power tractor. Therefore, those farmers are pressurised into getting an agri contractor. I am asking if the analysis can be concluded. I got a response to a parliamentary question from the Minister on 10 October that stated the analysis was still ongoing. However, when I asked the Minister six months ago, at the beginning of April, it was under way. It has gone on and on. When will the analysis be concluded? I urge the Minister to take on board the asks and requests of the IFA in particular, whose representatives I met with, who have asked for increased grant aid. I welcome the fact the Minister has not ruled it out yet, but I feel the analysis needs to be brought to a conclusion. Surely it is done. I do not know what is going on in the Department.
It will be concluded in time for the next opening and I will make a decision in advance of that. That is what I have requested. There is massive work going on in the Department. The comment the Deputy made at the end of her response was a rather flippant one. There are a record number of applications in at the moment for TAMS 3, which shows the appetite for on-farm investment. We are working through getting approvals for them. We have front-loaded the applications for work that needs to be done this autumn and winter to make sure people can get on with it and can get those approvals.
How farmers and the State spend the money is important, particularly in really long-term investments like investment in dribble bar low-emission slurry spreading machines or trailing shoes. We must ensure we are spending it wisely and appropriately because they will be around for a long time. We took a pause on the research available because we wanted to make sure it was actually achieving the objective it set out to achieve. I will conclude the analysis and we will make a decision based on the scientific evidence and other considerations as well.
My concern is the can could be kicked down the road on this. I hope that is not the case. I ask the Minister to give absolute certainty to farmers that this research will definitely be concluded by the opening of the next TAMS.
Will the Minister give certainty regarding that? It is important because we have to make sure also that we have practical measures in place. It is my understanding that the trailing shoe costs in excess of €50,000. Not every farming family with high input costs will have that type of money, particularly now when they are under pressure more than ever in terms of nitrates and everything else. I do not think it is fair and another measure has to be found. The more solutions that are there the better to help farmers and assist them. It is important that certainty is given today that there will be a definite conclusion by the opening of the next TAMS.
I already laid out the position that it was and remains my intention in terms of tranche two. Both the trailing shoe and the dribble bar are very expensive pieces of equipment and are very long-term investments. They are significant investments from the State's point of view in relation to TAMS, and a significant investment from a farmer's point of view as well. It is important we take steps now that will stand the test of time because these machines will be around for a long time. Many dribble bars and trailing shoes have been purchased over the last number of years. There has been a very strong uptake that is making a real difference at farm level. Based on new research on the emissions value and efficiency value in terms of nutrient uptake, particularly the efficiency value, I am having that reassessed and have paused the dribble bar. What I did do was increase the grant aid that was available for the trailing shoe from 40% to 60% so that the marginal cost to the farmer of purchasing a trailing shoe now as opposed to a dribble bar is the same as what it would have been if they had been purchasing a dribble bar under the previous TAMS. I take the Deputy's point in relation to tractor size, which is a challenge. I am considering it all in the round and will bring clarity as soon as I can.
