Tillage TAMS to open 'in weeks'

A week is a long time in politics but it’s even longer if you are a tillage farmer who has been waiting on TAMS to open.

As reported this Thursday, Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed has finally signalled the opening of the TAMS for tillage farmers. The €26m scheme will allow farmers to get a grant for the purchase of min-till equipment, sprayers, rainwater harvesting, grain storage and grain dryers.

But it has been a slow-burner. We are now into our second minister since the scheme was announced. Some 17 months have passed since Simon Coveney announced it in Budget 2016, which took place in October 2015.

Many a slip between cup and lip but the TAMS for the tillage sector has been a case of overpromising and failing to deliver for tillage farmers for almost a year and a half.

The Dealer has documented correspondence between the Irish Farmers Journal and the Department of Agriculture over the past year, checking on its progress on delivering TAMS for the tillage sector.

In March 2016, the Department said it was “awaiting confirmation” from the European Commission before it could push the button. This was five months after promising a support for the sector to carry out upgrading and modernisation works.

Fast-forward to May 2016, the Department told us that the “scheme will be launched in the coming weeks”. They weren’t wrong but it was 43 weeks to be precise.

Then in August 2016 they told us it would be “launched before the end of the year”. In September, that moved to “the earliest possible opportunity”. In November, work was at “an advantaged stage”. By January this year, we were told that it would be “launched independently in the near future”.

At the start of February, tillage TAMS was “being finalised” while by the end of February application details were “being finalised”.

Still, TAMS for tillage farmers has been launched and for that we should be grateful. It just happened after the biggest machinery event of the year and long after many farmers had planned their business for 2017.