A fund of €10m has been made available to support on-farm renewable energy investments as part of a €7.4bn jobs stimulus package announced by the Government in the wake of COVID-19.

The fund will also be open to fisheries and is part of a wider €500m allocation to accelerate capital works across a range of areas.

News of the fund was welcomed by chair of the Micro-Renewable Energy Federation (MREF) Pat Smith who said it recognised the role farmers could play in cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Smith said: “The monies announced today must be new and the details around the scheme … need to be published as a matter of urgency. The application process should be straightforward and the level of investment supports should be meaningful and open to all farmers.”

Rehash

There are concerns among farmers that the €10m is simply “a rehash” of money allocated to TAMS last year, Smith said.

Announced by the Minister for Agriculture last year, Smith said the take-up had been low for many reasons including poor promotion, unnecessary restrictions on the sizes of systems that would qualify, excessive bureaucracy and delays in getting approvals through.

He estimated that less than 5% of the €10m fund had been drawn down and warned that the newly announced scheme could not be allowed to repeat the failures of the last one.

“The success of any new scheme will be judged by the level of take-up by farm families and Minister Calleary must ensure that the scheme works for the maximum number of farmers and that the full allocation is taken up within the next 12 months,” Smith concluded.

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