Construction BUSINESS

The Irish Whiskey Association (IWA) has welcomed the decision by An Bord Pleanála to grant planning permission, on appeal, for the development of twelve Irish whiskey maturation warehouses at Moyvore, County Westmeath, to be developed by Vault Storage Ltd. The proposed facility will have the capacity to hold 200,000 casks of whiskey in maturation.

The proposed development had previously been refused by Westmeath County Council. The Irish Whiskey Association has actively supported Vault Storage Limited in their appeal to Bord Pleanála.

The production process for Irish whiskey is legally defined in both the Irish Whiskey Act 1980 and the Irish Whiskey Geographic Indication Technical File. An essential part of the legally-defined production process is the requirement that Irish whiskey must be matured in wooden casks on the island of Ireland for a minimum of three years.

Head of the IWA, William Lavelle commented: “There can be no Irish whiskey without maturation on the island of Ireland. Earlier this year, we were looking at a potential future shortage of maturation warehouse capacity. Thankfully, this positive decision from An Bord Pleanála, coupled with recent grants of planning permission for maturation warehousing in both County Cavan and County Antrim means the Irish whiskey industry can be assured that this threatened bottleneck in the production process will be avoided.

“The decision by Bord Pleanála sets an important precedent which should provide clarity to local authorities when they come to assess future planning applications for maturational warehousing.”