Mr. William Lavelle:

It is at present so spirits will do that. Going forward, there is a question mark over that. If one looks at the withdrawal agreement and the backstop, products in Northern Ireland will be required to be labelled "product of UK, Northern Ireland". From an Irish whiskey point of view, we have a concern about that. We would far prefer to use "product of Northern Ireland" and our producers in the North feel that way too. The word "Irish" is protected in the term "Irish whiskey". Irish whiskey is a defined category and the fastest growing spirit category in the world. We want to protect the Irish identity of the product but that is very much an issue which can be dealt with in the negotiations on the future relationship. It is just one issue within the withdrawal agreement which is, overall, the best approach to Brexit. There are many issues here and the backstop may never come into play. An agreement might be put in place before an extended transition. The focus now in representing our businesses in Northern Ireland is to express support for the withdrawal agreement. A "no deal" is something we want to avoid. We hope that early in the new year, we will be in a position to move on from the withdrawal agreement to look at that future relationship. That is why the ABFI position paper published in October is very much about priorities for the future relationship. We want to get into those discussions and ensure companies in this jurisdiction and the North can get the best possible deal, not from this agreement, but from the next agreement.