Minister Creed Must Urgently Intervene on Tams Approvals

IFA Rural Development Chairman Joe Brady has called on Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed to urgently intervene to get approvals issued to 5,000 farmers who have applied for TAMS.

Joe Brady said that the delays in getting approvals issued is a cause of major concern and is totally unacceptable. Farmers applied under tranche 1 as far back as July 2015 and with two tranche applications now completed, Minister Creed has to question the reason why there has been such a delay. IFA have been consistently told that the approvals were imminent but yet the process would appear to have got bogged down and this must be addressed.

Many farmers need approval to proceed with urgent investment work and cannot afford to do this work without either the 60% or 40% grant.

Joe Brady also said that with EU approval imminent for the sheep fencing and tillage schemes, it is vitally important that these measures are put into the existing tranche of the scheme which will finish at the end of June. This is critical as it will allow sheep and tillage farmers entry into the TAMS scheme which has been denied to them in the first two tranches.

IFA has already had to intervene with banks where credit had expired for investment plans of some farmers. The situation is becoming more serious particularly as farm incomes are under severe threat.