Recent figures published by the Department of Agriculture show that 6,181 applications of the 8,203 submitted under tranche 1 of TAMS 3 have been approved to date, marking the approval of ¾ of all applications.

A total of 503 applications (6%) have been rejected with 204 (2.4%) of applications withdrawn.

Progress on the processing of applications has been steady since the first week of January, with circa 500 applications being processed weekly by the Department since then.

At this rate, nearly all of the remaining 1,315 applications currently being processed will be complete by the end of March.

The Department had previously urged farmers and their agents to continually check correspondence as queries on applications had been going unanswered and risked delaying the processing of applications.

LESS equipment has led the way throughout the processing of applications, with all eligible applicants now having received approval to purchase eligible LESS items. The Tillage Capital Investment Scheme (TCIS) is relatively close behind with just 10 applications awaiting approval.

Both schemes eligible items had all been mobile items, with no farm yard sketches or planning permission necessary on applying, meaning a reduction in checks required on the Department’s end, hence the speedy processing of these.

Once all applications under tranche 1 have been processed, the Department will then be turning their attention to tranche 2 applications.