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Falling commodity prices have prevented farmers from proceeding with TAMS investments, according to a key government department.
However, the resulting backlog of unspent TAMS money cannot be automatically carried forward for future years.
This warning comes in a review of TAMS, carried out by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER). It supervises spending by all other government departments.
So far, only 6% of the €395m allocated to TAMS has been paid out to farmers.
Under the last big on-farm grant schemes, the Department of Agriculture was able to continue making payments even after the 2007-2013 Rural Development Programme funding them had finished.
But, “due to the fiscal rules as laid out under the reformed Stability Growth Pact, such an option no longer exists post-2020”, DPER says. So agriculture may have to compete with other departments at budget time to get more funds for TAMS.
Over 85% of farmers with TAMS II approval have not yet completed work and claimed grant payment, it says.
The officials surveyed 257 applicants to find out why and concluded that “the primary reason for approved farmers failing to draw down through the scheme has been a fall in income, eg due to a change in the price of agricultural commodities”.
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