Costings for shed building and farm investment under the Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) are now “disconnected from reality”, according to the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA).

ICMSA farm and rural affairs chair Denis Drennan has called for revised TAMS costings to be brought in immediately.

He described the current costs as “demonstrably out of date and inadequate” and said this was the case “even before the most recent surge in inflation around construction costs”.

Fictional

Drennan called for “progress on the issue” and said the ICMSA has “repeatedly pointed out" that rather than "closing the gap between actual costs and the increasingly fictional costings set out in TAMS, the gap appears to be widening”.

He warned that farmers can’t wait until TAMS tranche 26 opens in April, for which the current costings were developed in March 2021. He described these costings as “questionable even then”.

“Now, in the spring of 2022, they in no way reflect the current costs of materials. Some of our members have been quoted prices in excess of 40% above the reference costings,” he said.

Irrelevant

The ICMSA farm and rural affairs chair claimed the failure to update the TAMS costings has made the scheme irrelevant.

“We very much regret to point out that the gap is widening, not closing. We all know that our dairy farmers have to engage with the environmental issues and [the] ICMSA fully supports that engagement, but that means operating TAMS on a realistic level and making it fit for purpose.

“It is not fit for purpose right now and it has not been for some time.

"Only the Department can fix that and they need to get to grips with a problem that is completely obvious and completely within their control,” he said.

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