Michael Biggins, IFA rural development chairman, has called on the Minister for Agriculture, Michael Creed, to issue approvals for the 16th TAMS tranche applications, which closed in early January.
The IFA has said many any of these farmers have vital investments to carry out on their farms and need urgent approval from the Department of Agriculture to proceed.
Application carryover
The rural development chairman has highlighted that only 80% of applications have been approved in the last 4 tranches, with unsuccessful applicants being carried over to the following tranche.
The carryover of some 311 applications on three occasions means farmers are facing a very uncertain situation with regard to their investments, according to the IFA.
At a recent Charter of Rights meeting, the IFA was told that 2,500 farmers applied in tranche 16. Combined with a total carryover of 728 applications, 644 cases will be carried into Tranche 17 which closes in early April.
The IFA is calling for this backlog to be sorted out now and have called on Minister Creed to address the problem. They believe the process of carrying over applicants will otherwise continue until the end of December next, when the scheme is due to close.
TAMS spending
In relation to the overall spend on TAMS, Biggins highlighted that only €200 million has been spent so far from the €395 million allocated to the period of 2014 to the end of 2021/early 2022. This means that there is still €195m to spend between now and the end of this period.
The IFA will be arguing that under EU transitional rules, the TAMS will have to be extended beyond the end of the year. The leftover funding would ensure a continuity of farm investment.
