There is good news for farmers who submitted an application under tranche 21 of the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS), with Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue announcing on Friday that all eligible applications will be approved for funding.

Minister McConalogue said: “I am delighted to confirm the approval of 100% of qualified applications submitted under tranche 21.

"This is not something we have been able to do under previous tranches due to budgetary constraints, but approving all farmers this time around was an important priority for me.

"It gives farmers great certainty in being able to carry [out] important upgrades to their farms.”

Sanctioning

The sanctioning of approvals has commenced for all qualified applications under tranche 21 and letters have started issuing to farmers to confirm approval.

The news will also be hugely welcomed by farmers submitting applications under tranche 22, which closes for applications on 22 July.

The total payments under the scheme for investments completed in 2021 stands at just over €25m

One third of applications included for funding consideration in recent tranches had typically been carried forward from previous tranches.

Payment update

The Department of Agriculture continues to operate a weekly payment run, with €1.3m being paid on a weekly basis.

The total payments under the scheme for investments completed in 2021 stands at just over €25m.

Payments to date under the scheme stand at €290m paid to over 20,700 approved applications for completed investments since the opening of TAMS II in 2015.

Commenting on the payments, the Minister said: “I very am pleased to see that the Department continues to pay an average of €1.3m per week for completed TAMS II investments.

"With over 40,000 approvals issued since its launch, there are still a considerable amount of outstanding approvals out there with farmers and I would urge them to conclude the investment work and apply for the payment as soon as possible to facilitate the prompt issuing of payments.”

The current tranche of TAMS II closes on 22 July 2021. Further tranches in 2021 will open on 23 July 2021 and 5 November 2021.