The Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS 3) will not be extended to to include "support for tractors" because of budgetary constraints, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon, has confirmed.

Clare TD, Cathal Crowe, had asked the Minister for Agriculture, to consider introducing a new incentive scheme to encourage farmers, "who have particularly old and potentially dangerous tractors and machinery in their farm yards", to upgrade to newer and safer options.

However Minister Heydon said this would not currently be an option.

He highlighted to the Fianna Fáil TD that TAMS 3 "provides grants to farmers to build and or improve a specified range of farm buildings and equipment on their holdings".

"Overall, the scheme has proved very popular, with an unprecedented level of applications received," Minister Heydon added.

The minister also outlined to Deputy Crowe that the Farm Safety Capital Investment Scheme, which is a measure in TAMS 3, provides "an incentive to farmers to avail of investments to improve their own safety and that of their farm".

"However, due to budgetary constraints, it is not possible to extend the scheme to include support for tractors," Minister Heydon added.

According to the minister TAMS 3 also provides support for a range of new machinery in the Low Emissions Slurry Spreading (LESS) Scheme, in addition to this machinery including cultivators, sprayers and fertiliser spreaders are available under other TAMS 3 schemes

"I would urge farmers to ensure their machines are at all times in a safe operating condition," Minister Heydon added.

According to latest figures from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) 4,910 applications made under tranche 5 of TAMS 3 have been approved.

This means that 84% of the 5,823 applications submitted to the department have now been given the green light.

The latest data shows that 519 applications are still to be processed, 323 have been rejected and 71 withdrawn.