Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I too welcome Deputy Kelly's Bill. Fair play to him for bringing it forward. It is a breathe of fresh air. It is a straightforward and logical Bill that will be of great benefit to Ireland's burgeoning microbreweries, distilleries and cideries, tourism throughout the country, Irish industry and exports.

Currently, if one visits a brewery, it is illegal for the brewery to sell its own product directly to the public in whatever form it likes. This Bill would allow for the establishment of tap rooms in the brewery during hours that will not have an adverse effect on publicans. The financial benefit for these producers in being able to sell a percentage of their product while retaining the cut that normally goes to the distributor and publican which would not be insignificant. The Bill will do away with the main obstacle that has been holding Ireland back from being an internationally famous beer, whiskey and cider tourism destination.

The quality of the range of craft drinks products in Ireland is improving all the time. There are more breweries, cideries and distilleries coming online all the time and many in the planning stages at present. There is plenty of room for more. Currently, Irish microbreweries only occupy 2% of the beer market but, as Deputy Kelly pointed out yesterday, the breweries that make up 2% employ more people than the two biggest brewers in Ireland which control 65% of the market combined. If Irish microbreweries reached 4% of the market, there is potential to create hundreds of jobs here. One need only look at the US to see the potential for such home-grown breweries and distilleries. The US, the home of capitalism, now has over 5,000 breweries and they occupy 12% of the market. It goes to show what is possible here.

There are relatively untapped industries connected to the craft drinks market that will get a boost from the craft drinks industry. Already, breweries such as White Gypsy have worked with Minch Malt to start developing the quality of their product, such as the malt being grown with farmers around the Hook Head peninsula in Wexford. Obviously, this all is very parish pump of me, but I should name some of the farmers involved: Mr. Martin Foley, Mr. Jim Colfer, Mr. Kevin Creane, Mr. Vivian Tubritt, Mr. Pádraig Colfort, Mr. Tom Harpur, Mr. Vivian Roe and Mr. Joe Chapman.

4 o’clock

As the Minister of State knows, it is not often I do a bit of parish pump politics here, but high quality hops are grown in the UK and can also thrive here. All that is needed is a bit of increased demand on the island. Fair play to the farmers in the region of the Hook for putting their necks on the line on this.

In terms of tourism, the Bill is essential if Ireland is to become a craft drinks destination. Irish breweries are spread across the length and breadth of the country and are generally not concentrated in cities. The Bill will create another reason for people to travel around the island and, importantly, to places that may not yet be on the beaten track for tourism. Publicans who stock the product of their local brewery will benefit from extra trade when the brewers close at 6 p.m. and recommend the local as a place to try more of their products and those of other producers. The Guinness brewery tour is Ireland's top tourism attraction with more than 1.5 million visitors a year. It is about time certain Irish companies got a share of that tourism trade. Currently, we are dominated by foreign breweries here in the forms of Heineken, Carlsberg and Diageo. It is about time we helped our own.

The current law in this area is an outdated and unworkable relic of British rule which allows a brewery to sell directly only where the amount of beer is in any quantity not less than 4.5 gallons or two dozen reputed quart bottles, meaning about 19 litres. The existing legislation is stifling the growth of breweries by preventing them from maintaining control of the sales of the product they create. As such, I commend Deputy Alan Kelly and the work of Metalman, O'Hara's and White Gypsy on getting the Bill this far. As the Minister of State knows, I am a member of the justice committee and I will certainly help the Bill to move forward. I got into an argument with the Minister for Finance a few weeks ago when he was looking for me to declare my interest when I talk about Cerberus. I have an interest in the truth being told about that, but I will declare my interest in craft breweries. We still operate four wine bars and the only beer we sell there is craft beer. We started off selling solely beers from Italy and we have learned a great deal from the Italians. We are also selling beer from Kinnegar, Donegal, Rascal's from Dublin and the Porterhouse and the Irish beer is getting better all the time. Things are improving. In Italy, we went around vineyards to source wine. The idea that one would not be able to buy products from a vineyard is unthinkable. Italy is full of wine bars and the fact that producers can sell at source is not a problem for them. It is a simple matter of commonsense. I have been to umpteen craft breweries around Italy and one can buy beer there and take it away. It just makes sense and brings trade to small villages.

As has been pointed out before now, most craft breweries in Ireland are not in the big cities but are all over the place. In Wexford alone, there are four companies, YellowBelly, Clever Man, Arthurstown and Jack Doyle's, and every county has numerous craft brewers. The craft breweries got off the mark in Italy about 20 years ago and I remember visiting a few in 2000. At that time the big multinationals started to buy out anyone who got good at what he was doing because they were afraid of craft brewers. However, it reached a point where there was a craft brewery opening in Italy every day of the year and they had to stop. The market is growing and I do not see it being a problem under any circumstances for the Irish publican. It will actually develop an appreciation for the taste and quality of real good beer and help them in the long term.

This notion that people drinking craft beer in an industrial estate where a brewery has been set up might lead to anti-social behaviour is nonsense. People who drink craft beer drink much less than they do of commercial chemical beers. Let us call a spade a spade. Heineken, Guinness, which, God knows, I drink myself sometimes, and Carlsberg are chemical commercial beers and one can drink gallons of them. One cannot do that with craft beer because there is so much more substance and quality to it. One cannot drink it in the same quantities. In fact, therefore, promoting craft breweries in Ireland will actually be good for the health of the Irish people. Not only will they be drinking fewer chemicals, but they will also be drinking less alcohol. It is a win-win for the Government given that our health bill in 2014 to deal with alcohol abuse was €3.6 billion. It is about time the Government joined the dots and started to promote craft beer.

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