Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I urge the Cathaoirleach not to worry as I am sure the invitation extends to him.

I welcome the Minister for Justice and Equality to the House. I, too, welcome Deputy Alan Kelly and his colleagues to the Gallery and those who have an interest in the Bill. I welcome this important Bill which was initiated and sponsored by my Labour Party colleague, Deputy Kelly, in the Dáil. The Bill passed through the Dáil in the past week having been initiated in the other House last year, with cross-party support. I also acknowledge the support expressed both in this House and in the Dáil by the Minister for Justice and Equality.

As Deputy Kelly said in the Dáil, this is a small but important Bill. He acknowledged that the White Gypsy Brewery in Templemore initiated the idea that inspired the legislation. He spoke of the story Mr. Cuilan Loughnane, the owner of the White Gypsy Brewery, told him about a number of visitors to his brewery from the US who could not believe they were unable to purchase beer from him on the premises. This is a common-sense Bill that seeks to address the anomaly whereby people who take tours of distilleries, breweries and vineyards are unable to purchase products on site. Clearly, this is an anomaly in the licensing legislation, which it is important to address because, as the Minister said, microbreweries and distilleries are a dynamic and growing area of tourism in Ireland. It is also a labour intensive area. We know from the 2016 production levels that microbreweries alone employed 439 persons of full-time equivalent status. Other Senators spoke about the phenomenal growth in new enterprises. As many as 33 of the 62 production microbreweries commenced production in the 2014 to 2015 period alone. The need to encourage growth in this sector is recognised by all the arms of the State. In that regard, I note Fáilte Ireland sponsored and assisted the launch of the Bill in 2017 in recognition of the potential growth in tourism.

I recently had occasion to visit both the Jameson distilleries in Dublin and Midleton. I was very impressed by both of them and struck by the number of people who visited both premises. I also noted the enormous goodwill they generate locally.There is also an issue of equity here to which the Minister alluded in his speech. Some of the larger breweries and distilleries have already obtained public house licences in order to ensure that they can sell alcohol products to visitors, including those they produce on their premises. However, there is an issue of equity because that might not be an option for smaller craft breweries, in particular microbreweries and smaller distillers, because of the cost of extinguishing an existing public house licence. In my area of Dublin we have the Teeling Distillery in Newmarket Square which has regenerated an area that lacked investment for some time so this is the sort of initiative we want to encourage.

As chairperson of the Votáil 100 committee I was delighted to see my Labour Party colleague, Deputy Joan Burton, speaking in the Dáil in support of this Bill and noting that a number of prominent distillers are women, including the craft distillery in Midleton. She also noted that it is increasingly the case with craft beer that more women are getting involved as entrepreneurs. I am indebted to Ursula Ni Choill in my office for pointing out to me a recent profile in Imagemagazine of five Irish women brewing craft beer that was published in February 2018. The article noted that Irish women are now at the forefront of craft beer brewing and are breaking all number of glass ceilings to earn their place in the fast moving beverage industry in Ireland. They referred to Metalman Brewery in Waterford, to which Senator Coffey referred, but also to Two Sisters Brewing, Rascals Brewing Company in Donegal, West Kerry Brewery in Kerry and N17 Craft Beers in Galway. In all corners of the country we are seeing not only a growth in craft beer brewing but also in the number of women entrepreneurs.Beoirmagazine in 2014 pointed out that the tradition of women brewing is a long one in Ireland. We may think that it is a recent development-----