Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 14 December 2023
7. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when approval will issue in respect of TAMS applications relating to animal welfare-related investments and the construction of slurry and manure storage facilities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55733/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraI welcome the fact the Minister issued a statement recently about approvals for TAMS. I note there have been delays with TAMS and I very much welcome the issue of approvals. It is important to get approvals under way as quickly as possible. I am particularly anxious those approvals would be issued where people have applied for accommodation in respect of animal welfare issues and the storage of slurry and manure. I welcome that, once again, the Minister is attaching a priority to those types of applications. It is important from several points of view, both from animal welfare and from an environmental point of view, that those types of projects be given priority.
As then Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Deputy Smith put in massive investment through the then TAMS scheme which made a very substantial difference on farms. I thank the Deputy for raising the issue and for his continued pressing for this scheme and the successor scheme over recent months.
The targeted agriculture modernisation scheme, TAMS, 3 provides grants to farmers to build and-or improve a specified range of farm buildings and equipment on their holdings. I have significantly increased the number of items that can be claimed for under TAMS 3 compared with before. Up to last year, there were 300 items which were eligible for either 40% or 60% grant aid. There are now approximately 430. It is a massive improvement from last year to this year in terms of Government backing of on-farm investment.
Overall, the scheme, as the Deputy can understand, has proved very popular as a result. The first tranche of TAMS 3, which closed on 30 June 2023, had a record 8,241 applications across the various sectors. Applications received across all of the measures in tranche 1 are being processed. Once the initial processing is completed, all applications are subject to a ranking and selection process, but we have accepted all 100% into that.
To assist farmers who required the construction of slurry and manure storage facilities for the spring and were waiting on approval and needed it urgently, I provided an urgent facilitation so that farmers who needed to get the work done were able to apply and be able to do it this winter and into the spring. We have issued 252 in that regard. Non-priority approval letters for tranche 1 applications have commenced, starting with the solar capital investment scheme. It is anticipated the majority of approvals under tranche 1 will issue by April 2024. To address the issue where approval is required urgently, my Department is putting in place a mechanism that will allow applicants or their advisers who have an urgent need to commence works to contact their Department local office and to have their application expedited.
I thank the Minister for the reply and the progress he is making with TAMS. I understand why he would have a closing date tomorrow in regard to tranche 2. Planners have been under extreme pressure because of the number of schemes and, unfortunately, some may be caught who have not submitted applications. I understand at the same time that the Minister wants to get to the next cohort of farmers as well, and it is important they are processed as quickly as possible. When people make plans, they are putting in place financial arrangements and, unfortunately, costs continue to rise.
I would make one point with regard to housing and slurry and manure storage capacity. I am aware from my time in the Department with the farm waste management scheme of how important it was for farms, especially in the less advantaged areas. One issue, and it is not strictly within the question today, is the exclusion of dribble bars from grant aid. The Minister will be familiar with the type of terrain - the drumlin country - we have in Cavan-Monaghan, etc. We have hilly land and heavy land which is not free drainage. The exclusion of dribble bars creates particular problems for those smaller scale farmers who want to do as much environmental work as possible. Maybe that could be considered for inclusion once again.
I thank Deputy Smith. To follow on from what I was saying earlier, 100% of the 8,000 plus applications that applied in tranche 1 were approved. Anybody who applied was eligible for the grant.
Yesterday, I made a decision on tranche 2. It has been open since the start of July. Anybody can apply between July and now. Up to a few days ago, we had almost 3,000 applications. I wanted to make sure we could close that tranche in a way that they could start to be processed because I want those who have applied for that who want to do their work next year to be able to get on with it. If I had let that tranche run much longer, it would have run until the start of next year and would have affected that.
By announcing a closing date, I did not want to announce it for 1 January. Advisers have had a tough enough year and I did not want them having an avalanche of new applicants coming at them in the next week or two running up to Christmas. I wanted, at the same time, to give two or three days so that if they had something on their desk which was near completion, they could get it in. That is why the closing date is tomorrow evening. I also announced in the process that the next closing date will be 12 April. The next tranche will close on 12 April. Anyone who wishes to submit an application from next week onwards will have to 12 April.
I am still considering the dribble bar issue and I acknowledge the points the Deputy makes in that regard.
I very much welcome the Minister's confirmation that he is considering the dribble bar. In my own territory - we all are more familiar with our own constituencies than elsewhere - farmers want to invest but there are big costs involved. It should be borne in mind the difficulty that will arise for those now with 150 kg N/ha and that they have to invest in particular machinery and may not be able to get grant aid. If the Minister can make progress on including the dribble bar again, it will be beneficial, both from an environmental point of view and for the individual farmers as well.
The point Deputy Smith makes about terrain is a fair one and it has been made to me. Under the outgoing TAMS scheme up to the end of last year, for a dribble bar for low-emission slurry spreading or for the trailing shoe one, the grant aid was 40%. The trailing shoe machine is more expensive than the dribble bar and it is also bigger, but some of the research that came through to me was that the emissions reductions and the efficiency of the trailing shoe was much better than the dribble bar. That is why we have not included the dribble bar at present. If you are making a big long-term investment such as that, you want to make sure it will be good and efficient. We increased to 60% the grant aid for the more expensive trailing shoe machine so that the net cost to the farmer would be the same as if he or she had bought a dribble bar.
The Deputy has a point regarding the terrain. I will consider that and I am also finalising further research on the emissions efficiency before making a final decision on whether we will include it.
In the decisions I made yesterday on tranche 2, I have once again approved 100% of all valid applicants. Anyone who has a mobile application can go ahead and buy at their own risk on the basis that they will recoup the cost.
