A total overhaul of the application process for grants under the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) is urgently needed, according to agri services and planning consultant Aidan Kelly.

The current TAMS application process was too slow and cumbersome, and lacked transparency, the Tipperary-based consultant claimed.

“Planning permission can take four to six months, if nothing major goes wrong, but TAMS grants are taking eight months at a minimum, and up to 12 months in cases,” said Kelly. “I can’t understand how [TAMS] applications are taking so long to process. The Department are furnished with all the relevant information at the start,” he maintained.

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Kelly contrasted the TAMS application process with that of planning permission.

“There is a legal requirement that a planning application is turned around in six to eight weeks. If more information is required, then there is a further four-week turn-around,” he said.

“With TAMS there are no timelines and no explanation about why things take so long. Your application goes to Johnstown Castle and it could be sitting there for six months, and you struggle to contact them.

“When it [the application] comes back to the local department office, it could be sitting there for another two months,” Kelly claimed.

Kelly, who recently made a TAMS application himself, said he “can see why people don’t bother applying for the grants”.

He maintained that the Department needs to put in place strict timelines for dealing with TAMS applications, and inform farmers where their application is in the process and how long a final decision will take.

Kelly also called on the Department to fast-track slurry storage applications, given the urgent need for this infrastructure.