The deadline for tranche 19 of the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS II) has been extended by two weeks, with the new deadline set for Friday 13 November. The original deadline for tranche 19 had been set at midnight on Friday 30 October 2020, with the announcement of the extension coming via a tweet from the Department of Agriculture’s account on Friday evening 30 October.

The extension will push back the opening of tranche 20, which is likely to be the final tranche of the scheme in its current format. Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue announced in the 2021 budget that funding of €85m would be made available for continuing the scheme next year. However, the minister suggested that there could be changes to the scheme as we currently know it, following a review by his Department.

Tranche extension

Reports suggest the extension was influenced by a delay in approvals being granted for tranche 18 of the scheme. There were lots of calls from advisers seeking an extension, citing that they required an opportunity to re-apply for clients who are deemed unsuccessful in tranche 18.

A recent update by the Department of Agriculture shows 3,448 new applications were received under tranche 18

While valid applications that are deemed unsuccessful due to an inferior selection criteria score will be carried over automatically in to tranche 19, advisers were seeking an opportunity to assess these applications and amend them if necessary to have a better chance of being accepted in the next tranche.

A recent update by the Department of Agriculture shows 3,448 new applications were received under tranche 18 while 30% or 1,240 of the lowest ranking applications were rolled over from tranche 17.

This left a total of 4,688 applications up for consideration with a value of over €63m, which is significantly higher than the funding available. This means there is likely to be a similar or higher carryover of applications from tranche 18 to tranche 19.

Payment update

The level of progress in payments increased last week with €1.835m paid out. This is a significant increase from €1.292m in the previous week. An additional 154 applicants received payment, bringing the total number paid to 17,120. The number of applications submitted for payment is increasing at a similar rate, with 134 more payment claims submitted last week and a total of 18,233 now submitted.

The total sum of money paid out under the scheme stands at €249.805m

There have been 32,033 applications approved to-date, but a significant percentage of these are applications that have passed their deadline to complete works and are now void. The Department’s update pointed to 6,000 approvals still in play which, given the payment claims since, is likely to stand at over 5,500 approvals still live. The total sum of money paid out under the scheme stands at €249.805m from an overall budget in the region of €385m.