'Huge risk' of farmers missing out on TAMS - consultant
Some Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Schemes (TAMS) applications are facing delays, which one consultant said presents a "huge risk" of farmers missing out.
Tom Canning, an agricultural consultant and member of the Agricultural Consultants Association (ACA), told Agriland: “We had a surprise announcement at our AGM today, that the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine’s (DAFM) TAMS section are only rolling over applications from the 9th and 10th tranche of the TAMS scheme one more time.
“So, about 1,340 farmers now, who had not had their applications accepted in the last two tranches, their applications are now being put into a draft format on the TAMS system.
“We've been told this on the eve of the closing date of the current tranche, so we must have this completed by tomorrow evening [March 6]."
'Huge risk'
Canning highlighted that such short notice could cause problems for farmers and for the department in its ability to "handle that amount of applications nationally".
"There's a huge risk that some farmers could miss out on TAMS grants overall.”
Dr. Robert Leonard, agricultural inspector with DAFM, was also speaking at today's (Thursday, March 5) ACA AGM.
He said: “Letters are going out today. That’s being worked on at the moment.”
Brian Dolan, the new president of the ACA, described TAMS as “a victim of its own success”.
Dolan told Agriland: “It's frustrating for farmers to make the decision that they're going for something, then to go down the whole way of getting the application done and gathering up all the dockets and getting the surveys done for solar and so on so forth, and then all of a sudden find that they're not getting it, that they don't get approval."
