Tillage Sector
Dail Éireann — 2025-10-14
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Peter 'Chap' Cleere (FF), Carlow-Kilkenny

It was recently reported that the Department of agriculture intends to reopen the technical files on Irish whiskey. Currently, Irish whiskey is defined as a "spirit distilled on the island of Ireland ... from a mash of malted cereals, with or without whole grains of other cereals". By this definition, there is absolutely no requirement at the moment to use Irish grain in the production of Irish whiskey. Is the Minister able to confirm if the technical files will be reopened? If they are, would he be supportive of requiring Irish whiskey to be made with grain grown in Ireland? To me, this would seem an obvious way to support the struggling tillage sector.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-10-14/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:04+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-10-14