Farmers at several Teagasc events throughout the country were shocked to hear that the accelerated capital allowance for the construction of slurry stores had a limited time period of six months in order to avail of the scheme.

With farm building contractors under pressure with workloads as it stands, farmers were in dismay at the tight timeframe.

However, in correspondence with the Irish Farmers Journal, the Department has since clarified that the scheme will run for three years – 2023, 2024 and 2025.

“The reason for the six-month period in the Finance Act is that when it was being drafted, there was no certainty regarding the State aid cover, as the agriculture block exemption was due to expire at the end of 2022.

“A new agriculture block exemption has been adopted and the period outlined in the Finance Act is due to be extended by the Department of Finance before 30 June 2023,” the spokesperson said.

The scheme will allow farmers to depreciate the costs associated with creating new slurry stores over a two-year period, as opposed to the normal seven-year period for farm buildings. The Department has also outlined plans to have a first quarter opening date for the On Farm Capital Investment Scheme (OFCIS), the successor to TAMS, which ran for seven years.