The first two tranches of the capital grant element of the Farm Business Improvement Scheme (FBIS) will be broadly similar, although some changes may be made to the second tranche of the scheme before its planned opening next autumn.

At the Stormont agriculture committee last week, DAERA officials indicated that they are open to making some amendments to the scheme.

“We will be taking feedback as we go through this process. If there are any other items that emerge that will score highly that we hadn’t thought about for the first tranche, then we will look at that,” confirmed Colette McMaster from DAERA.

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At present, DAERA has £40m of funding approved by the Department of Finance for two initial tranches for both Tier 1 and Tier 2 of the capital grant scheme.

In the event that the first tranche is oversubscribed, McMaster told MLAs last week that it had not been decided as yet if there would be preference for rejected first tranche applicants the next time around. “There will be an opportunity to re-apply at tranche two. We haven’t got to the stage of saying how tranche two applicants would be prioritised,” she said.

Planning

At the meeting last week, several MLAs raised concerns about Tier 2 projects that require planning permission. Brenda Cunning from DAERA pointed out that an application can be made for Tier 2 of the scheme if planning permission for the project has either been approved or applied for at the time of the grant application.

“Before they are given letters of offer they must have planning permission in place. We have put May as a provisional date for when we would want them to have it,” she added.

Interest

There has been strong farmer interest in the capital grants with a DAERA spokesperson confirming to the Irish Farmers Journal that over 2,500 farmers have attended the first four information roadshows. Over 1,000 farmers have completed the online safety assessment required for applications, according to the spokesperson.

Meanwhile, some beef and sheep farmers thinking of applying for Tier 2 grants have questioned whether they will ever get through the business case process when set against investments in dairy, pig and poultry enterprises.

“There should have been money ring-fenced for the sector. I’m determined to give it a go, but there has to be a danger that all the money ends up with the poultry sector,” commented one farmer thinking of building a new sheep house.