Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Exactly. This is the historic argument. Recently I visited Midleton and I noted that the sale of Irish whiskey, in the context of the export market, is up by 30% in a year. A new vat has been ordered in Midleton and there is to be more production in other parts of the country. A whole cottage industry has been established around Irish whiskey and the branding of it. This brings us back to the point made by Senator Barrett. He spoke about the poor old Irish Parliamentary Party and there was a lot of sympathy for what it had to put up with at the time - all these new fellows who turned up in 1918 and so on. What happened was that when we gained our independence in one fell swoop, the British Empire turned upon us. Irish whiskey was the dominant brand at the time, but Scotch took over as a consequence of our independence. Of course, we were not helped by prohibition in the United States. I am glad to see that in the context of the export market, Irish whiskey is now taking a much more substantial part of the international whiskey market. As a result, this will bring more tax revenue to this country and more jobs and once again Irish whiskey will regain the place it lost in 1921.