Mr. Kieran Tobin:

I thank Senator White for those encouraging words and thoughts. It was an interesting thought to articulate what we do internally in our companies - looking at things five years and ten year out. As an industry, it would be interesting to articulate that in a more coherent way than we have been doing. As an industry we have looked at what the level of investment will be over the next four to five years, which is €500 million.

In Midleton, Irish Distillers will invest more than €200 million in expansion of the distillery and maturation capacity. Guinness will invest €150 million in new brewing capacity in St. James's Gate. Tullamore Dew is building a new distillery and Jim Beam is going to invest in Cooley so when we add all that up, we are talking about €500 million over the next five years with all the construction jobs and all that goes with that. Ultimately, there will be manufacturing jobs.

Inevitably there will be additional employment in sales and spin-off jobs. Several of today's newspapers carry a nice photograph of the 35 graduates Jameson is sponsoring to act as ambassadors for the company in 28 different markets. That is a part of job creation which is sometimes missed. It would be interesting to articulate that more clearly.

In regard to ownership, Irish whiskey has to be distilled and matured in Ireland, irrespective of who owns it. Irish cream liquors are also subject to strict rules. Pernod Ricard, which is ultimately a French multinational, owns Irish Distillers and it sells Jameson as an inherently Irish product. It also owns Havana Club but it is not going to make a Cuban rum into a French rum. It is focused on heritage and the origins of its products. Ownership is less important than strong branding. The French have appellation d'origine contrôléefor their wines and we have it for our whiskeys, cream liquors and other products.

I take on board speakers' comments about pricing and other issues. We endeavour to express our views on sponsorship and we engage with the Government where possible.