The Low Emission Slurry Spreading Scheme will enable farmers to purchase new LESS equipment for the spreading of slurry.

LESS is an important environmentally sustainable technology that will facilitate Ireland meeting its environmental commitments through reductions in ammonia and other reactive Nitrogen emissions from soil.

The practice leads to greater nutrient recovery from slurries and indirectly improved nutrient use efficiency, as well as a reduced dependency on chemical fertilisers.

The Scheme is open to farmers who prior to submitting the online TAMS 3 application have a minimum of 5 hectares of owned, leased or rented lands which has been declared under the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) or the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) or equivalent in the year of application or preceding year.

• or are engaged in the breeding, rearing or fattening of pigs and have a minimum of 60 production units at the time of application.

• LESS Grant-aid will be paid on approved, completed, and eligible expenditure and shall be paid at a rate of 60% up to the applicable maximum LESS investment ceiling.
• For LESS The maximum amount of investment eligible for grant-aid under the Scheme is €40,000 per holding.
• However, in the case of a joint application by two or more eligible partners under a registered farm partnership, the maximum eligible investment ceilings referred to is increased to €60,000.

• The investment ceiling under this scheme is NOT subject to the overall TAMS 3 investment ceiling of €90,000 per holding.
• Multiple applications per tranche are permissible. However, the minimum amount of investment which is eligible for approval under this Scheme is €2,000 per application.