Simon Coveney strengthens spirit drinks regulations

New regulations to protect the integrity of a number of key Irish spirit drinks products such as whiskey, poitin and cream were announced yesterday.

Agriculture, Food and Marine Minister Simon Coveney said these regulations provide critically important protection for Irish companies in developing the Irish spirit drinks sector.

He said the sector has ambitious plans to establish a number of new distilleries to meet the growing demand worldwide. Irish whiskey, Irish poitín and Irish cream are protected “Geographical Indications” under European Law. This means they must be produced on the Island of Ireland in accordance with strict technical specifications notified to the European Commission.

Mr Coveney said Irish whiskey exports grew by almost 200% in the last decade and the sector employs over 750 people. Last year, close to seven million cases of Irish whiskey were exported to over 100 countries. Exports are set to exceed 12m cases by 2020 and 24m 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,” he said.

Mr Coveney said 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.