Tranche nine of the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS 3) closes for applications on Friday 5 September, meaning any farmer with an application still to finalise or complete needs to act fast to get it submitted. Tranche 10 will then follow, which will remain open for applications until 5 December 2025.

Tranche nine is likely to be the first under TAMS III which will be subject to ranking and selection in the approvals process, with all eligible applications received before this tranche receiving approval. Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon stated following the closure of TAMS eight in June, that TAMS is a demand-led scheme with a defined budgetary allocation and as such a more prudent approach to approvals is needed.

“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.”

He added that this will remain under review for the remainder of the current CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027.

TAMS update

Meanwhile, the latest TAMS III update published by the Department on 25 August 2025, shows 66% of applications submitted under tranche seven, the emergency tranche opened in response to storm Éowyn and including back-up generators, sheep, bovine and equine fencing, wood/biomss chippers and mulchers, have been approved. There are 550 applications still in progress, as outlined in Table 1.

A similar approval percentage has been recorded for tranche six. There is no update on the approvals process for tranche eight, which closed for applications on 6 June, with an estimated number of over 5,000 applications.

Payments update

The latest TAMS payment update published by the Department on 29 August 2025 shows 33,944 approvals issued under the scheme to date. Within this there have been 12,454 payment applications submitted, of which 10,324 have been completed. A total of €90.7m has been paid under the scheme to date.

There have been some queries of late regarding the likely level of applications which are likely to not follow through and complete investments. It is hard to gauge what this figure is likely to be, with the only information available to inform this question is that 67% of farmers receiving approval under TAMS II have submitted a payment application to date.