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Pig farm grants to increase

A new financial stimulus to ensure pig farmers can meet new EU sow welfare requirements by the end of the year has been announced by Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney.

The Sow Welfare TAMS investment ceiling is being increased from €300,000 per holding to €500,000 per applicant for the first sow house, with further amounts of €300,000 for each of the next three houses.

The grant rate remains unchanged at 40%, but previous sow house grant-aid under the 2007 Sow Welfare Scheme and the original TAMS Scheme will be taken into account for the purposes of grant rate.

Applicants who have not commenced work in relation to an existing grant application can cancel those applications, and re-submit for the newly improved scheme, to which €9m is allocated. Selection criteria will determine what applications proceed to approval in each upcoming tranche of the scheme.

Mr Coveney said: “I am aware of the pressing need on the part of some farmers to commence work immediately. The first tranche under the revised scheme will therefore exceptionally close on Jul 16, 2012.”

The closing date for receipt of applications under the revised scheme will be the end of October and the final date for completion of works under the scheme and the submission of a payment claim will be the end of Sept 2013.

However, this does not mean that farmers can ignore the entry into force of the new EU animal welfare rules with effect from Jan 1 — although farmers who complete their investment works after that date can continue to receive grant-aid. Similar extensions will be provided to farmers who are completing investment works under the original TAMS Scheme.

The revised terms and conditions and accompanying application form are in the Farmer Schemes and Payments section of the www.agriculture.gov.ie website.

“The decision to increase the investment ceiling is important in the context of the commitments that farmers will have to make to comply with the new regulations,” said IFA pigs and pigmeat chairman Tim Cullinan.

He said the banks have an important role to play in providing funding as part of the necessary investment, and processors must pay a viable pig price.

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