One in five farmers who applied for TAMS II grant between 8 December 2018 and 5 April 2019 will see approval delayed because that tranche of the scheme was oversubscribed.

"We've reached a point where we're looking at the current tranche and we're saying: 'We won't be able to fund all of those if we want to be able to continue to run new tranches as time goes on'," Department of Agriculture secretary general Brendan Gleeson told the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee this Thursday.

"It could be 20% based on the current tranche, but those farmers will be able to put in applications in the next tranche as well and they might end up higher up the ranking of selection at that point."

After revealing the backlog last week, the Irish Farmers Journal now understands that the Department is now finalising administrative checks on applications from tranche 13 and plans to write to farmers with delayed approvals by the end of this month.

Sending letters now will only cause confusion

Agricultural Consultants Association vice president Tom Canning told the Irish Farmers Journal that at this stage, he would prefer the Department to wait for the current tranche of applications to end on 5 July to contact farmers. If that tranche is not oversubscribed, the Department could then give farmers with delayed approval the certainty that they will now be accommodated.

"Sending letters now will only cause confusion," Canning said.

He added that some of his clients were considering going ahead with construction projects without the grants because the fear buildings will not be ready for next winter. One farmer awaiting TAMS approval in the west has decided to go ahead with an €80,000 development even though this means he will become ineligible.

"He is losing €20,000. It's a disaster," said Canning.

Deposits

The consultant also reported confusion awaiting TAMS approval around deposits and clarified that farmers can pay a deposit on a machine or construction project as soon as they have submitted their application.

"The Department accepts this, even before approval," he said.

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