The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) has demanded that the On-Farm Capital Investment Scheme (OFCIS), which replaces the Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Scheme (TAMS), should be opened immediately or, at the very least, a date should be set for its opening.

ICMSA deputy president Denis Drennan said the delay in opening the new scheme was inexplicable and becoming a real obstacle in planning and budgeting.

“The scheme was meant to open in January of this year. We are now in mid-February and we still don’t even have a date for the opening of the scheme.

“Farmers are holding back on making investments in the hopes that the scheme will soon open,” he said.

Drennan also insisted that when the scheme opens, there should be a tight turnaround in the first tranche so that farmers get approval by 1 June to allow investments to take place this year.

Equipment list

The ICMSA deputy president highlighted that “on top of and compounding the confusion about the opening date, we still don’t know what equipment will be included in [OFCIS] because the official list of equipment has yet to be announced”.

Inflation rates are still expected to be around 6.6% in 2023 and the costings in the new scheme must reflect that

Drennan also warned that the reference costs in the new scheme should reflect the current inflationary economic climate.

“Put bluntly, the costings on which previous TAMS were based owed more to imagination or even fantasy than they did to the reality of construction and the rampant inflationary pressures so evident to us all.

“Inflation rates are still expected to be around 6.6% in 2023 and the costings in the new scheme must reflect that and allow for regular reviews and updates so that the scheme remains connected to reality,” he said.

120-cow limit

Addressing reports by the Irish Farmers Journal that there will be a 120-cow herd limit to avail of grant aid for a 10-unit parlour, Drennan stated that the ICMSA is completely against such an “arbitrary and isolated consideration”.

“There are family dairy farms up and down the country who will not be able to get grant aid for milking parlours, while others - even with vast off-farm incomes - will be able to avail of OFCIS.

The ICMSA says it is against there being any 120-cow herd limit on grant aid for a 10-unit parlour. \ Donal O' Leary

“According to the Department itself, the average dairy herd size was 103 cows in 2022, with a measurable upwards trend as margins come under pressure.

“We are already under massive pressure in terms of farm labour and specialised milkers and it seems bizarre that some of the farmers most under pressure are the very ones denied the possibility of relief through modernisation,” he said.

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