Minister to ‘consider’ duty rebate scheme for Irish whiskey
“I cannot give a commitment on this at the moment but I’ll certainly give it some consideration,” promised the Minister in response to a question from Glendalough Poitín’s Brian Fagan at the recent launch of the Irish Whiskey Association to the effect that the Government might consider offering duty rebates to small distilleries in the same way as it had done for small craft breweries.
“That’s a fair question,” the Minister had responded, “One can’t instantly produce Irish whiskey so bridge capital/financing is required.
“We need brands like yours. We need a vibrant craft distillery sector to build a much broader picture of Irish whiskey than simply relying on the dominant brands. They provide more personality for the Irish whiskey sector.
“We need to look to the sector collectively and to Enterprise Ireland in terms of supporting the financing of these projects.”
He explained that he’d been talking to IBEC and others about the development plans for Irish whiskey for the next 10 years.
“We’re evaluating this as a Department and will look at how we can incentivise and assist in this story as we build up to the Budget next Autumn,” he said.
