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Agriculture Schemes

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 21 January 2026

Wednesday, 21 January 2026

Ceisteanna (217)

Paul Lawless

Ceist:

217. Deputy Paul Lawless asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the rationale for limiting approvals for TAMS 3 solar PV applications to approximately 25% of eligible applicants in tranche 9; the specific budgetary, administrative, or policy constraints that determined this cap; the evidence base used to justify rejecting the majority of farmers who sought to invest in renewable energy despite Government commitments to increase on-farm renewable generation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4650/26]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

The Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) is a demand-led scheme with a defined budgetary allocation. TAMS 3 has been hugely successful to date, with payments of over €121 million issuing to farmers since payments commenced in June 2024. A total of more than 45,000 applications were received in the first eight tranches of the scheme, which is almost three times the number received over the corresponding eight tranches in TAMS II. All eligible applications received across those eight tranches have been approved, with the result that more than 40,000 approvals have issued to farmers to date, allowing them to proceed with their investments.

In order to ensure that the available budget is distributed fairly over the remainder of the CSP, it was necessary to apply the ranking and selection criteria to limit the number of approved applications in tranche 9, which closed for applications in September 2025.

The number of applications and the level of funding provided to date under certain schemes, such as the Solar Capital Investment Scheme (SCIS), have well exceeded expectations, to the extent that more than 20% of the total TAMS budget is being spent on the SCIS alone. To date, a total of 3,149 SCIS applications have received approval, with €22.9 million in payments issuing to 1,232 applicants.

The budgetary allocation for TAMS 3 is spread over all schemes and it is not possible to allocate a budget to each of the eleven schemes individually. On that basis, a decision was made to focus on approvals for core on-farm investments such as farm safety and nutrient storage, acknowledging the huge importance of continued investment in these measures.

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