ICSA sheep chairman John Brooks has called on Minister Simon Coveney to re-consider the exclusion of sheep fencing from the TAMS II programme.
“While the previous schemes may have been under subscribed, there has to be an understanding that low income sheep farmers can only avail of grant schemes when their finances allow.
“It is also true that opening and closing grant schemes is not an ideal strategy as it leads to a panic to get in while the scheme is open for a limited time with an obvious knock-on effect on construction price inflation.
“We believe that measures such as sheep fencing should ideally be open on an ongoing basis so that farmers can avail of grants only when their cash flow and profitability permits and on a considered basis rather than jumping in when there is a limited window of opportunity.”
