Sinn Féin spokesperson on agriculture Deputy Martin Kenny TD has expressed concern about comments from Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon in relation to budget shortfalls in the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS).

“Recent statements by the Minister that the TAMS budget may be exhausted with the current number of applications received by the Department is very concerning," Kenny said.

This, he added, is unfair to other farmers who are in the planning process for investments on their farms and now they may not receive the fund they need to complete a project on their farm.

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“The Minister also stated that he will prioritise slurry storage applications. Again, this is very unfair towards other farming sectors.

"Slurry storage is important, obviously, but so is health and safety equipment. There was no mention of the ranking selection process for applications when TAMS was first announced," Kenny stated.

The Sinn Féin TD called on the Minister to find the money to cover all applications to the scheme.

Applications

There have been 42,000 applications to the scheme so far. Some €70.5m in funding has already been paid to cover 8,000 payment applications. This equates to an average of almost €9,000 per application, the Irish Farmers Journal revealed last week.

If the remaining 34,000 applicants proceed to draw down similar amounts, the existing budget could be exhausted.