Press release
Minister McConalogue announces the outcome of the review of TAMS reference costs
From Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Published on
Last updated on
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue T.D. today announced that the review of TAMS reference costs has been finalised and the changes proposed have been implemented from the opening of Tranche 23 on 24 July 2021. This review was based on a detailed analysis of the costs of completed works up to end-March 2021.
Commenting on this the Minister said:
“I am announcing the finalisation of the review of the TAMS reference costs which was carried as part of a periodic review of costs. TAMS continues to be a hugely successful and beneficial scheme to Irish farmers. The increase in reference costs for a large number of investment items will ensure farmers have access to the generous grant rates available to carry out important on farm investments. I recognise that costs are changing on an ongoing basis and my Department will commence a further review immediately to ensure costings are kept as current as possible.”
All the reference costs under TAMS II have been fully reviewed. The costs will be increased in the case of own labour and in the case of 62 investment items, with increases ranging from 5-40%. A decrease of 10-30% will be implemented in the case of three investment items.
The Department continues to issue weekly payments at the rate of €1.3 million on average with €34 million now issued in respect of completed investment works this year. Payments of over €298 million have now issued in total with 21,500 approved applications for completed investments paid since the opening of TAMS II.
Commenting on the payments the Minister said
“I am very pleased to see that the Department continues to pay an average of €1.3m per week for completed TAMS II investments with €1.6m issuing last week alone. I would like to encourage farmers out there with outstanding approvals to conclude the investment work and apply for the payment as soon as possible to facilitate the prompt issuing of payments”.
The current Tranche of TAMS II closed on 23rd July 2021 with a further 2,000 applications received. These applications will now be assessed. A new tranche is now open for new applications until November 5th.
A change is being implemented from this new tranche onwards in that applications for the following specific investments - Milking Machine, Dairy Structure, Milk Storage and Cooling or In-Parlour meal feeding system, will be required, as is the case with some other investment items, to be in compliance with farm waste and farm nutrient storage requirements at the time of application. These farm waste and storage requirements are laid down in Statutory Instrument S.I. No 31 of 2014 European Union (Good Agricultural Practice for Protection of Waters) Regulation 2014 up to 31st December 2017 and with Statutory Instrument (SI) 605/2017, European Union (Good Agricultural Practice for Protection of Waters) Regulations 2017 from 1 January 2018.
To provide for the implementation of upgrades to the TAMS IT system, these dairy investment items will be available for application from 8th August 2021.
Note for Editors:
Further details on the TAMS II measures and reference costs are available on the Government of Ireland website at:
https://www.gov.ie/en/service/targeted-agriculture-modernisation-schemes/