Everybody is under pressure at the moment. If there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s that COVID-19 has profoundly changed our daily lives. It asks a lot of all of us.

The last thing anyone needs is more unnecessary pressure. For that reason, the Department of Agriculture needs to be pulled up for its handling of TAMS last week.

An extension to the current tranche was called for, to allow farmers whose applications to the previous tranche were rejected to assess their options. The problem is few or none of those 4,688 applicants knew the fate of that application. All they know is that, as reported in these pages two weeks ago, 30% of them are facing rejection.

Many of the failed applications are likely to have been among the 1,240 carried forward from tranche 17, with some bounced along from even further back.

Checking applications

Applicants can check the status of their TAMS application on agfood.ie. It’s a fantastic portal, one the Department should be complimented on.

One farmer I know has told me that he checks it every morning, every lunchtime, and again each evening. That might sound obsessive, but he is up against more than one TAMS-related deadline.

If he wants the equipment he has applied for next spring, he must quickly confirm his order. COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on supply chains, production lines and lead-in times for orders. Brexit may worsen things. Low-emission slurry spreading equipment, fertiliser spreaders and tillage machinery will be needed sooner than these dark November evenings might suggest.

Another farmer spoke of his need to sell secondhand machinery to part-fund a planned TAMS investment. TAMS-assisted purchases can’t be bought on finance, private selling in the lockdown is difficult, and auctions are curtailed.

The Department cannot be blamed for the pandemic, of course, and management of TAMS is probably also affected by COVID-19. None of this is simple, and we all need to cut each other a little slack. However, its silence on an extension left advisers fielding queries from anxious farmers. Should they trust their application would be accepted, allow a rollover, or put a fresh application together, dropping the valuations to increase the ranking?

With no information on ranking points from tranche 18, that would be pure guesswork.

The extension came, at 4.30pm on Friday 30 October. Via Twitter.

That seems a very casual response from the Department to the legitimate requests for information from farmers and their professional advisers. Not good enough.