Ms Marie Byrne:

Irish whiskey was once the most successful spirits category in the world with more than 12 million 9 litre cases being sold every year in the mid-19th century. For a variety of reasons Irish whiskey was left lagging behind its international competitors and by the 1980s there were only two distilleries in the country of the 88 that had been operating during the glory years. Irish whiskey, however, is on the way back. There are now 20 distilleries all over the island at various stages of construction or production and last year 6.2 million 9 litre cases of Irish whiskey were exported. That is a little over half of the total sold a century ago so there is still plenty of room for growth, which businesses like mine want to expand into in the coming years. We are doing this by focusing on building brilliant brands with global consumer appeal, offering an alternative to Scotch and Bourbon whiskies. Irish whiskey is the fastest-growing spirit in the world and has carved out its own niche in the global spirits market, relying on the traditional craft of Irish distilling with an authentic and welcoming heritage, from a country universally acknowledged for its premium agricultural produce and underpinned by high quality whiskey product with a distinctive taste and broad appeal.

The growth of Irish whiskey is of obvious relevance to this committee given that malting barley is the central ingredient. Mr. Masterson will outline what the growth of Irish whiskey means for farmers and the importance of malting barley as a crop but I want to focus on another angle.

Whiskey is a fantastic product but it is a complex one to bring to market. I am involved with the Dublin Whiskey Company, a new distillery that is setting up in the Liberties in Dublin. We bought the site in 2012, but it will be 2015 before we start construction on our historic mill building, due to a lengthy planning process, and therefore it will be late 2019 before we are ready to sell whiskey. The building purchase and renovation, capital equipment, running costs for several years and marketing are all paid out long before any sales occur. In our case that is approximately €10 million. That is a very tough financial journey and a huge barrier to entry. That is why alternative revenue streams like whiskey tourism are so vital to the industry. There are already several important whiskey tourism venues in Ireland which attract 600,000 visitors every year. I am delighted to say that the new distilleries plus other new attractions, such as the Irish Whiskey Museum add to the potential for this category which could easily surpass the 1.2 million whiskey tourists who visit Scotland annually.

The whiskey industry requires a holistic approach in order to nurture small distilleries, such as my own Dublin Whiskey Company, through the difficult period before we can market our product which will be mainly for export. To size the prize, the Scotch export market is worth approximately £4.3 billion annually. Once we are able to sell our product we need to be able to rely on a robust home market before we can scale to export. At the moment Government policy does not allow this to be a realistic option. We are now in the bizarre position that Ireland is one of the most expensive places in the word to buy Irish whiskey with the Government taking 68% of the retail price of an average bottle of whiskey in this country. In fact the €17.37 tax take on a bottle of Jameson in Ireland is more than the total retail price of that same bottle in New York at €16.61. This not only prevents us from establishing a foothold in our domestic market but also prevents our brand from building a relationship with tourists when they are here as those tourists think we are trying to rip them off. The high price of alcohol was the second most cited negative feature of Ireland in Fáilte Ireland’s recent research, after the weather. I am not suggesting that this committee can do anything about the weather but surely it can help us to be more competitive with rival destinations such as Scotland. We should be very excited and extremely proud of the current offerings and what is coming down the road, where the breadth of Irish whiskey available to consumers is undoubtedly exciting. Our single malts, blends and the cream of the crop, the uniquely Irish pot still, all deserve global recognition.

I will now hand over to Willie Masterson who will talk about the importance of the drinks industry to his farm, and to farming in general.