The current Rural Development Programme (RDP) for 2014 to 2020 came with a total prospective budget of £623m.

Of that, £186.5m is from the EU, to be match-funded by DAERA. The rest, a potential £250m, was to come from the Stormont Executive, mainly to deliver on the recommendations from the ‘‘Going for Growth’’ report.

Around £200m was earmarked for capital grants under the Farm Business Improvement Scheme (FBIS). Tier 1 to support total spend of between £5,000 and £30,000. Tier 2 for large-scale capital projects, with 40% grant funding up to £250,000.

We are now well past halfway in the life of the current RDP and, to date, only around £7.5m has been spent on FBIS, by way of the first tranche of Tier 1. It is a long way short of the £200m, which increasingly looks like a nominal figure to create positive media headlines.

But we still should recognise that the initial £40m from Stormont to cover two initial tranches of Tier 1 and Tier 2 is a significant amount of money in the current financial climate. Of that £40m, £15m was for Tier 1 and £25m for Tier 2.

By this stage, it was expected that the second tranche of Tier 2 would be open for applications, but the roll-out of the first tranche has been slow. It brings into question if the £25m for Tier 2 will be spent in a reasonable timeframe. However, Tier 1 has been popular with farmers, attracting 6,500 applications across the first two tranches. With only around 1,500 likely to be successful each time, the demand is there. That contrasts with other RDP schemes where uptake has been below target. There are many good arguments for a third tranche of Tier 1 to open later this year.