Approvals continue to be rolled out by the Department of Agriculture for tranches six and seven on the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS). Tranche seven was classed as an emergency tranche – which allowed farmers affected by the spring storms to apply for fencing, generators and wood chippers, with priority approval given for these items.

As seen in Table 2, approvals for tranche seven now total 1,333 (as of 11 August), or just over 61% – 119 of the 2,181 applications (5.5%) have been rejected, while a further 53 applications (2.4%) have been withdrawn. These percentages of rejected and withdrawn applications are on par with previous TAMS tranches. This leaves 676 applications (31%) still in progress, despite the closing date being just shy of 20 weeks past.

Table 1 shows the approvals for tranche six, which ran from 28 January up to 7 March, saw 4,930 applications received – 197 (4%) were rejected and 139 (2.8%) withdrawn. This leaves 2,720 applications (55%) having received full approval to date, while a further 1,874 (38%) are still awaiting progress, despite over 22 weeks having passed since the tranche closed for applications.

Tranche eight closed for applications on 6 June, with no approvals issued to date, while the remaining 2,550 applications under tranches six and seven, and a further 282 remaining from tranche five, are expected to take several more weeks to clear before the Department’s attention turns to tranche eight.

This is the final tranche in which all eligible applications are guaranteed to be accepted, with the Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon highlighting that the fixed budget for TAMS III would mean that ranking and selection would apply.

“TAMS is a demand-led scheme with a defined budgetary allocation. Given that we are now just halfway through the current CAP Strategic Plan (CSP), it is prudent that we are mindful of the budget available for the remaining TAMS tranches. In order to ensure that the available budget is distributed fairly over the remainder of the CSP, it may be necessary to limit the number of approved applications per tranche going forward by applying ranking and selection criteria, including for the upcoming tranche nine, which opened on 7 June and will close on 6 September.”

A total of 5,364 applications were submitted under tranche eight, which brings the total to over 42,000. The Animal Welfare and Nutrient Storage Scheme (AWNSS) proved the most popular, with 1,692 applications, while the Farm Safety Capital Investment Scheme (FSCIS) was the second most popular, accounting for 1,287 applications.

Tranche nine closes for applications on 5 September, with tranche 10 to open on 8 September and run up to 8 December.