Women Farmer Capital Investment Scheme (WFCIS) (TAMS 3)
This scheme provides an incentive to women farmers to upgrade their agricultural buildings and equipment by providing them with an increased level of support to meet the considerable capital costs associated with the establishment of their enterprises.
Eligible persons
Eligibility criteria include:
- Aged more than 18 years and under 67 years of age at the date of submitting the application.
- Identified as female on the Department’s Corporate Customer Management (CCM) system
- Own or have leasehold title to the site on which it is proposed to carry out the development
- Have a minimum of five hectares declared under the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) in the year of application or preceding year
- For Equine Investments only have and a minimum of three equines declared on the Equine Census or equivalent in the year preceding application.
A Woman Farmer can only qualify for one holding or entity under this scheme.
Refer also to the TAMS 3 eligibility which can be found here.
Grant rate
Grant aid is paid at the rate of 60% up to a maximum of €90,000 per holding. Multiple applications per tranche are allowed however the minimum amount of investment which is eligible for approval under this scheme is €2,000 per application.
Applicants who receive approval and payment for investment works at the maximum ceiling of €90,000 under this Scheme shall not be eligible to apply for grants under any other TAMS 3 Scheme
operated by the Department under the 2023 – 2025 RDP with the exception of the applications under the Low Emission Slurry Spreading Scheme (LESS) and Solar Capital Investment Scheme (SCIS) which is not subject to the ceiling.
In the case of an application by two or more eligible partners, the maximum increases to €160,000. Read the scheme terms and conditions carefully for additional information on rates payable to two or more eligible partners.
Eligible items
Equine infrastructure items eligible for investment under this scheme include: equine housing; ancillary concrete; tack room; feed and forage store; all weather exercise areas (arena/ lunge ring/ gallop); mechanical horse walker (roofed / unroofed); fencing and gateways (integrated in a new fence line only); pasture management machinery may also be of interest. The full TAMS 3 infrastructure list is available here. Newbuilds only are to be grant aided, not for the upgrade of existing structures.
Note: upgrade to existing all weather exercise arenas or gallops is not aided, but extension to existing infrastructure can be considered i.e. extension to an arena or gallop
Further information on the Women Farmer Capital Investment Scheme
DAFM Information webinar – questions and answers