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First tranche available to tillage farmers attracts large volume of applications

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed T.D., today announced the results of the latest tranche of the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) which closed last Friday. This was the seventh tranche available to farmers and 1,835 applications were received. Almost 500 of these applications were from tillage farmers who can now apply for grants for the first time since the scheme was made available to their sector last year.

Commenting on this the Minister said “I am very pleased with the level of interest shown in the seventh tranche of the TAMS scheme, particularly in the new Tillage Capital Investment Scheme under which almost 500 applications were approved. The TAMS scheme is an essential element in our Rural Development Programme and these capital investments will drive growth and competitiveness on Irish farms while at same time bringing about significant improvements in areas such as animal health and welfare and environmental sustainability”.

The suite of seven measures available under TAMS II was launched under the Rural Development Programme 2014-2020 and is co-funded under the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD). The measures and numbers of applications received under the seventh tranche are as follows;

Measure No. of Applicants
Young Farmers Capital Investment Scheme 380

Dairy Equipment Scheme 333

Organic Capital Investment Scheme 48

Animal Welfare, Safety and Nutrient Storage Scheme 473

Low Emission Slurry Spreading 98

Pig and Poultry Investment Scheme 13

Tillage Capital Investment Scheme 490
Total 1,835


Minister Creed concluded “The eighth tranche is now open to cover the period from 1 July 2017 to 6 October 2017. There are still significant numbers of farmers out there with existing approvals from previous tranches who have yet to submit a payment application. I would encourage all of those farmers who have existing approvals to act on them and draw down the generous funding available. We have paid out €15m this year and are continuing to make payments every week”.