A new maximum investment ceiling under TAMS must be introduced to allow dairy farm modernisation to continue, ICMSA farm and rural affairs committee chair Denis Drennan has said.

While welcoming the decision to continue the TAMS scheme into 2021, the ICMSA has said that the decision will be of no use to the many farmers who have already used up their maximum investment ceiling.

Drennan said: “The TAMS scheme covered the 2014-2020 CAP programming period and while farmers understood that the investment ceiling would apply over this period, we were now in a new situation.

“With a new CAP programming period, a new investment ceiling should apply from 1 January 2021.”

Unfair delays

The ICMSA has called for environmental improvement under the scheme to continue, branding the exclusion of farmers who have reached their ceiling as unfair and as a result of delays outside of their control.

Drennan continued: “All indicators suggest that the new CAP will not be in place until 2023 and it’s unfair and illogical that these farmers will be excluded from grant aid due to factors beyond their control.

“Brexit and the failure of the EU to agree an MFF until last summer have delayed the implementation of CAP post-2020, but were outside the control of farmers. It’s seems desperately unfair that farmers should be paying the price for them.”

TAMS set to continue as new tranche announced

New TAMS ceiling needed for dairy modernisation to continue - ICMSA

The ICMSA has called for environmental improvement under the scheme to continue, branding the exclusion of farmers who have reached their ceiling as unfair.