A county councillor has called for farm schemes to be reformed and simplified, warning that small farmers are "overwhelmed" by bureaucracy and paperwork.

Galway county councillor Cillian Keane drew particular attention to the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) as a scheme that is "well intentioned" but fails to reflect the realities faced by farmers will smaller enterprises.

Keane said: "TAMS is a classic example of a scheme that, in theory, should be transformational, but it lacks an understanding of the reality a small farmer faces.

The councillor, who is a candidate in the upcoming Galway-West by-election to fill the Dáil seat vacated by President Catherine Connolly, added: "TAMS works on paper, but in reality it is far too complicated for the small farm.

"If I want to use a government scheme to modernise an older shed, I am faced with the need to get an engineer's report, ensure compliance with planning, or secure and exemption.

"For a smaller family farm going through the process, it is often simply not worth it," he said.

According to Keane, more streamlined and simplified schemes could reach more farmers and ensure that allocated funding is used.

"If the scheme was simplified, you could extend it to more farmers, delivering for more people and ensuring the money is spent rather than sitting there unused and not helping those who need it," he said.

According to the Fianna Fáil councillor, farmers in Connemara does not have the same time and resources as larger farmers.

"Government schemes need to be designed with the small farmer in mind, and should be as easy for a farmer with 50 or 60 sheep as they are for a farmer with a herd of 300 cows," Keane said.

"We have an awful lot of good schemes... However, they are not designed with the smaller farmer in the west of Ireland in mind, where inputs and outputs are smaller," he added.