A follow-on farm safety scheme will operate in TAMS II when it opens next year, according to Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney.

“Farm safety will remain a key investment area for the next Rural Development Programme as well and my Department is already looking at options for the development of a new scheme under that Programme,” he writes in a comment in this week’s Focus supplement.

“There have been over 25% more fatal farm accidents so far in 2014 than in the entirety of 2013. Farming is currently the most dangerous occupation in the country,” he says.

Farmers are being advised by IFA and Teagasc to not wait for a follow-on scheme, but to go ahead and apply to the current scheme.

One reason is that an overall limit on the amount of grant aid a farmer can claim is proposed for TAMS II – the so-called super ceiling.

Using the current scheme will leave all TAMS II grant aid available for future investments in the years to 2020.

So far, there have been 1,245 applications to the €12.2m TAMS I Farm Safety Scheme. Application to the first funding tranche closes at the end of next week, on Friday, 28 November.

The second tranche then opens for applications, with a final application deadline of Friday 9 January 2015. The scheme offers a 40% grant on 28 safety items.