Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney has announced an extra two weeks for completion of TAMS I projects, where work on these has already commenced. The new closing date is Monday 14 September.

Minister Coveney said he was aware that in certain cases where work has already commenced, farmers were experiencing severe difficulties meeting the original 31 August deadline.

“I am allowing an extension in these cases to facilitate the completion of work and submission of the required paperwork to my Department.”

He added that the extension was only available in the circumstances described above and the deadline would not be extended further.

Rush

Recent days have seen a rush of sheep fencing work ahead of the closure of TAMS I, with contractors preparing to work over the weekend. Sheep fencing has received most attention as it is not an eligible item in the TAMS II suite of schemes. TAMS II provides grant aid for dairy equipment, farm safety and sheep handling equipment.

Almost 3,000 sheep farmers received approval to install fencing or buy handling equipment in TAMS I. However, over half (1,567) have not yet sought payment of grant aid. Farm representatives blame this on tight cashflow and delayed approvals. Similar shortfalls in the dairy and farm safety schemes have pointed to EU funding not being fully utilised.

IFA Rural Development chair Flor McCarthy welcomed the minister’s extension of the deadline.

“The previous deadline was too tight for farmers to get work completed and had placed them under pressure,” he said. “In many cases, approvals to proceed have only recently been issued and the timescale to finish work was too short.”

Denis Naughten TD this week warned that thousands of farm safety applications have been held up by delayed approvals and he called for flexibility on the deadline.