The Department of Agriculture is currently writing to one in five farmers who applied for a capital grant under the TAMS II scheme between 8 December 2018 and 5 April 2019 to tell them their application cannot be approved until the next tranche at best, a spokesperson has told the Irish Farmers Journal.

Tranche 13 of TAMS II attracted the highest number of farmers since the scheme opened in 2015, with the Department receiving 3,209 applications worth €45m. This exceeded the budget available for the period for the first time, and the 20% ranking lowest on priority criteria are being moved to the queue for tranche 14.

"This tranche will close on 5 July, after which all applications, including those rolled over from tranche 13 will be further considered," the spokesperson said.

Criteria

The criteria, including age of the farmer, cost-effectiveness of the project and eligibility to the ANC scheme, will then apply again in case tranche 14 is also over-subscribed.

The spokesperson clarified that applications rolled over from tranche 13 will be considered for "possible approval," with no guarantee at this stage that they will get the green light.

The Department continues to pay grants to farmers at a rate of €1.5m per week and total payments now exceed €150m. There are currently 10,000 approved applications worth €128m waiting to be claimed, the spokesperson added. This is up from €122m one month ago.

Read more

Latest TAMS tranche 20% oversubscribed

Environment: solar panels specifications for TAMS II published