Agriculture Schemes
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-14
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Martin Heydon (FG), Kildare South

I thank Deputy Aird for raising the important matter of TAMS and the specific case of a constituent he has come across.
TAMS provides grants to farmers to build and improve a specified range of farm buildings and equipment on their holdings. All investments supported by TAMS 3 must be linked to climate, environment or animal welfare. To date, almost 2,500 applications for nutrient storage investments with a proposed grant aid value of €55 million have been approved. The investments made under this measure are an important tool to support the sector in improving water quality and underline the Government's commitment on this issue.
For these investments relating to farm nutrient storage, applicants must provide details of their compliance with nutrient storage requirements as laid down in SI 588 of 2025, the European Union (Good Agricultural Practice for Protection of Waters) Regulations 2025. Accordingly, applicants who do not have sufficient storage capacity to comply with these requirements are not eligible under TAMS 3 for slurry storage related investments.
In respect of applicants who have not had livestock previously, I confirm that they are eligible to apply under TAMS for storage facilities. I also confirm that new entrants to farming who, as a consequence, did not have any livestock over the winter prior to applying are eligible to apply for slurry storage, as they are currently compliant with the required minimum storage amounts. In addition, farmers who currently out-winter all of their stock, assuming they are compliant with out-wintering requirements, would be considered compliant and be eligible to apply for slurry storage.
It should be noted that, from 1 October 2028, the slurry storage capacity requirement for dairy cows of 0.33 cu. m per week will be amended upwards to 0.4 cu. m per week. Farmers who currently have sufficient storage capacity on their holdings will continue to be eligible to apply under TAMS for farm nutrient storage facilities to bring their holdings into compliance with the amended regulations for a maximum of two years after 1 October 2028.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-14/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:56+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-14