The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney T.D. has introduced new regulations to protect the integrity a number of key Irish spirit drinks products.
Referring to these important regulations today, Minister Coveney said, “These regulations provide critically important protection for Irish companies in the developing Irish Spirit Drinks sector, which has ambitious plans to establish a number of new distilleries to meet the growing demand worldwide.”
Irish Whiskey, Irish Poitin and Irish Cream are protected “Geographical Indications” under European Law. This means that they must be produced on the Island of Ireland in accordance with strict technical specifications notified to European Commission.
He added “In the last decade, Irish Whiskey exports grew by almost 200% and the sector employs over 750 people. In 2014, close to 7 million cases of Irish Whiskey were exported to over 100 countries. Exports are set to exceed 12 million cases by 2020 and 24 million cases by 2030. Three years ago, the island of Ireland had four distilleries in operation – in the next three years that number could grow to over 20. I am confident that this success can be replicated in other spirit drinks products.”
The new regulations introduce strong enforcement powers to ensure that spirit drinks labelled with these protected designations are manufactured in Ireland in accordance with the approved technical specification. The designations cannot be used on products manufactured elsewhere in the EU. The regulations also apply to a range of other protected spirit drinks manufactured within the EU.
The Minister concluded, ”These regulations mean that inferior products or those that do not share the uniquely Irish heritage of these protected Geographical Indications cannot be sold as Irish Whiskey, Irish Poitin or Irish Cream. They can help to protect the reputation and integrity of these products, but also to protect Irish jobs. From a consumer perspective, they will also give assurance to customers, at home and abroad, of the quality of the unique spirit products they are consuming.”
