The second tranche of the Tier 1 capital grant element of the Farm Business Improvement Scheme has been oversubscribed, with around half of the applications received expected to be successful.

DAERA confirmed this week that 2,996 applications were submitted before the deadline at the beginning of February.

The total budget for the second tranche of the scheme is expected to be £7.5m.

That level of funding is the same as in the first tranche of Tier 1, when 1,500 applicants were approved for grants to help buy equipment and machinery costing between £5,000 and £30,000.

Budget approval

However, the anticipated £7.5m of funding for the second tranche of Tier 1 is still subject to budget approval, and letters of offer will not be issued to successful applicants until that approval is received.

The department could not confirm to the Irish Farmers Journal when the second tranche of the budget is likely to be approved, although that decision it is not necessarily dependent on having a new Stormont Executive in place.

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Second tranche of Tier 1 opens

Competitive process retained in Tier 1 grant