Ireland's Agriculture Minister Martin Heydon has urged farmers to apply in good time for Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Scheme (TAMS 3) grants, saying most hold-ups in processing come from incomplete applications and late replies to the department's queries, Agriland reports. He was answering questions from TD Paul Lawless in a Dáil debate on agriculture schemes.
Lawless had asked whether the department had assessed how delays push up project costs through inflation, contractor availability and rising material prices.
Heydon said the average weekly time for approval ranged from five weeks in 2022 to eleven weeks in 2023, in line with the Farmers' Charter target of issuing approvals within three months of a tranche's ranking and selection. Approvals that took from 12 to 52 weeks were, he said, largely due to insufficient documentation from the applicant or their adviser.
"I acknowledge that difficulties may arise in securing contractors at certain times, so I would urge farmers to submit their application in sufficient time to ensure they can plan their proposed investments accordingly," he said. The department reviewed investment costs last year and updated its reference costs, and continues to monitor them.
More than 55,000 approvals have been issued so far. TAMS 3 grants help farmers build or improve a specified range of farm buildings and equipment, and payments of over 193 million euro have been made since they began in 2024, with about 1.5 million euro still being paid out each week.
Photo: Eric Jones / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Source: Agriland
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