Almost 900 women receive over €12m in TAMS grants

Almost 900 female farmers have received funding to the tune of €12.6m under the Women Farmers’ Capital Investment Scheme (WFCIS).

The scheme, which is part of the wider suite of measures in the Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Scheme (TAMS 3), provides an incentive to women farmers to upgrade their agricultural buildings and equipment by providing them with an increased level of support.

A standard grant rate of 40% is provided for all eligible investments, with an enhanced 60% rate available to women farmers who meet the eligibility criteria.

To date a total of 899 payments have issued to farmers under the WFCIS amounting to almost €12.6m based on payment claims submitted for completed investments, a spokesperson for the Department for Agriculture told the Irish Farmers Journal.

County breakdown

Some 3,112 women have applied to the scheme, with 2,309 of these applications approved.

Of the 899 farmers paid to date, 202 have been in Cork, 80 are in Tipperary and 53 are in Waterford. Cork farmers received over €3m in funding under the scheme to date.

The county with the highest number of applications to the scheme is Cork, with 600. Of this figure 456 have been approved. It was followed by Tipperary with 292 applications, of which 208 have been approved, and Galway with 170 applications, of which 135 have been approved.

Four female farmers have availed of the scheme in Dublin, while five have drawndown the funding for works in Louth.

The scheme is open to female farmers aged from 18-67 years of age, who own or have leasehold title to the site on which it is proposed to carry out the development, and have a minimum of 5ha declared under the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) or the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) or equivalent in the year of application or preceding year.

Additionally, a total of 839 applications have been paid to date to female farmers under other TAMS 3 measures amounting to €5.4m.