The purpose of this Bill is quite simple and clear. The method of arriving at the objective may seem a little bit roundabout. The distillers had represented for some years back that a definition of Irish whiskey is required in order to safeguard the name of Irish whiskey at home and abroad. Speaking in Dáil Éireann on the Financial Resolutions last year I indicated an intention to include a definition of Irish whiskey in the Finance Bill of 1949. It was, however, then pointed out to me that by including any such definition I might bring about a result that certainly was not intended, that I would find my Finance Bill of last year was not a Money Bill, and that the Seanad would have more power over it than they were entitled to. I decided then to segregate this morsel and to leave this in itself to the Seanad for whatever it liked to do on it.
The piece of legislation is contained in one clause. It says that, for the purpose of a particular section of Section 105 of the Spirits Act, 1880, two things are to happen: that spirits described as Irish whiskey are not to be deemed to correspond to that description unless they have been obtained by distillation in the State from a mash of malt and cereals; and that spirits described as Irish pot-still whiskey shall not be deemed to correspond to that description unless they have been obtained by distillation solely in pot-stills in the State from a mash of cereal grains such as are ordinarily grown in the State, etc. The effect of these two sub-sections is that if and when a permit or certificate having a description of spirits is sought, whatever may be the other requirements called for, these additional requirements are now imposed. No certificate or permit can contain a description of spirits described as Irish whiskey unless it is clear that they have gone through either of these two processes. The Spirits Act of 1880 has a subsection—(9)—of Section 105, as follows:—
"If any question arises as to the accuracy of the description of spirits in a permit or certificate, the proof that the spirits correspond to the description shall lie on the owner or claimant of the spirits, who shall prove the same by the oaths of two credible witnesses, being skilful and experienced persons competent to decide by examination thereof."
On that are imposed these extra requirements that spirits are not to be described as Irish whiskey unless they have been obtained by distillation in a particular way or, as Irish pot-still whiskey, unless they have been obtained by distillation in another way.
The permit or certificate that was given has nothing to do with export. Yet this description is required, according to the distillers, for the purpose of safeguarding Irish whiskey abroad. The way it will work is this: On the transfer of whiskey inside the State from, say, one bonded place to another, a permit or certificate may be looked for. Under the new conditions, that permit or certificate with the description of Irish whiskey will not be given unless it corresponds with what is in this new piece of legislation but, once the certificate is given hereafter, when that whiskey comes to be exported the people who get the whiskey on the export market will know that in its passage inside this country it has had to pass that test and that it has been so described and, therefore, that it has been obtained by distillation in either of these two ways.
