Farmers who apply to future tranches of the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) may not get into the scheme due to a potential funding shortfall.

There have been 42,000 applications to the scheme so far. There is now a risk that the allocated funding may not be enough to cover future applications.

Some €70.5m in funding has already been paid to cover 8,000 payment applications. This equates to an average of almost €9,000 per application. If the remaining 34,000 applicants all proceed and draw down a similar amount of money, the existing budget could be exhausted.

Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon told the Irish Farmers Journal on Wednesday that “it is prudent to flag that I may well have to apply ranking and selection” to future tranches. The minister has said he has to make sure there’s a “pot of money” there for farmers who want to invest in slurry storage.

No guarantees

“I want everyone to know that there’s no guarantees that it will be 100% [approval of applications] into the future, I’m working hard to try and manage that budget.

“I have to make sure I don’t reach a cliff edge stage. People should be very cautious on the equipment side if they are making investments, I can’t guarantee that there won’t be ranking and selection,” he said.