The Department has again urged all farmers who have completed their approved TAMS II investments to submit their claim for payments through the online system immediately, to allow for payment.

To date, over 4,950 approvals have been issued to farmers under the scheme. The Department says the budget is in place to pay for these investments and the online system is also in place to ensure that payments claims received are examined and paid as quickly as possible.

'Small number of claims'

Last month, secretary general of the Department of Agriculture Aidan O’Driscoll said that only “a small number of farmers” had submitted claims for payment under tranches one and two of TAMS II.

According to Department figures, by the end of October only 234 farmers had sought payment under tranche one, despite there being 2,483 approvals. And only 40 farmers had come forward to seek payment under tranche two, despite there being 1,778 approvals. This was a total of 274 claims. At this stage no claims had been received under tranche three.

However, one month later the number of payment claims has jumped by 85%, from 274 to 507. This number, however, includes tranche three claims.

Figures available to the Department indicate that there are over 550 TAMS II claims at a draft stage on the online system

In addition to the over 500 payment claims received, figures available to the Department indicate that there are over 550 TAMS II claims at a draft stage on the online system.

The online claim system has been open since July 2016 and the Department is urging all farmers who have completed their investments under TAMS II to submit their claim for payment to the system as soon as they are in a position to do so.

Full details of the TAMS II terms and conditions are available on the Department’s website here.

Most popular measures

Percentage-wise, the majority of claims (252) have been received under the dairy equipment scheme, which saw 1,681 approvals in tranches one and two. This means that just under 15% of farmers approved under this measure have claimed.

This is followed by claims under the low emission slurry spreading scheme (64), which saw 463 approvals, meaning almost 14% of farmers approved under this scheme have claimed.

The next highest rate of claims is in the organic capital investment scheme, under which 10% of approved farmers have claimed.

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