Written answers
Tuesday, 29 July 2025
Department of Finance
Tax Reliefs
Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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642. To ask the Minister for Finance if he plans to introduce measures to support the Irish wine growing industry including the introduction of a relief from alcohol products tax for sparkling wine produced in Ireland (details supplied). [41416/25]
Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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Excise duty on alcohol is governed by EU law, with which Irish excise law is obliged to conform. The “Alcohol Structures Directive” (Council Directive 92/83/EEC) lays down a harmonised approach to excise duties on alcohol in the EU. It defines alcoholic beverages and sets out the basis on which excise duties on such products are to be established by Member States as well as the conditions for the application of reduced rates and special regimes. In Ireland, the excise duty takes the form of Alcohol Products Tax (APT) as provided for in Chapter 1 of Part 2 of the Finance Act 2003 (as amended).
In July 2020, the Alcohol Structures Directive was amended to introduce new discretionary provisions (Articles 9a, 13a ,18a and 23a) which provide Member States with the discretion to apply excise reliefs (reduced-rate schemes) for independent small producers to specific categories of alcohol and alcohol products. Article 9a of the Directive gives Member States the option to grant reduced rates on grape wine produced by independent small wine producers. Ireland has not introduced such a scheme for wine.
In accordance with the Directive, any reduced-rate scheme would be subject to a number of conditions as follows:
- The reduced rates shall not be applied to undertakings producing on average more than 1,000 hectolitres of wine per year.
- The reduced rates shall not be set more than 50% below the standard national rate of excise duty.
- For the purposes of the reduced rates the term ‘independent small wine producer’ shall mean a wine producer that is legally and economically independent of any other wine producer, which uses premises situated physically apart from those of any other wine producer and does not operate under licence. However, where two or more small wine producers cooperate, and their combined annual production does not exceed 1,000 hectolitres, those wine producers may be treated as a single independent small wine producer.
Ireland has a long-standing microbrewery relief scheme which was introduced in Finance Act 2005. In January 2023, Ireland introduced a small producer’s relief scheme for cider and perry. This relief was extended in March 2025 to include high strength cider. A similar relief was also introduced on 1 March 2025 for other fermented beverages other than cider and perry. These schemes provide relief to qualifying independent small producers of 50% of the APT rate due on the relevant product. As fruit wines i.e. non-grape wines such as berry wines are categorised as an ‘other fermented beverage’ under EU and Irish law, qualifying independent small producers can avail of relief in respect of these products since 1 March 2025.
As the Deputy will be aware taxation of alcohol products is a matter which is kept under review in the context of the annual budgetary context.
The Deputy may also wish to note that a wide range of supports for small and medium businesses including information relating to cash flow, sustainability, grants and tax relief for energy efficient equipment is availability from the National Enterprise Hub :
A higher figure of 20,000 hectolitres is allowed for Malta.
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