Drinks Ireland responded to the Governments EIIS consultation

Drinks Ireland|Irish Whiskey's Small Business Committee and Drinks Ireland|Spirits submitted a detailed contribution to the Government’s recently concluded review of the Employment and Investment Incentive Scheme (EIIS).

While Drinks Ireland acknowledged that the EIIS is beneficial to business we called on the Government to make the scheme more appropriate for Irish whiskey and spirits distilleries, which are different to other small and medium sized enterprises in other sectors in that the capital investment scale can be much bigger and the investment cycle much longer before profitability is recorded.

In particular, Drinks Ireland called for the opportunity to invest to be extended up to seven years and for businesses to be able raise funds under EIIS when they are in their growth stage i.e. from when the first spirit laid down to mature into whiskey comes to market. These measures would help make the EIIS more accessible to the Irish whiskey industry.