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Industry profile & statistics
Alcohol Market
The alcohol market in Ireland was worth €6.9 billion in 2008, of which approx €2.2 billion comprised of excise and VAT. The drinks industry provides €1.1 billion of inputs purchased from other sectors of the economy.
Alcohol market
Jobs
The drinks industry supports 105,000 full or part-time jobs in over 10,000 on- and off-licensed outlets throughout Ireland.
Manufacturing
In a tough economic climate for manufacturing, the production of alcoholic beverage in Ireland accounted for €2.9 billion in turnover in 2006. That represents 2.4% of total manufacturing.
€256 million is paid out by the manufacturing industry in wages and salaries annually and we directly employ about 4,500 jobs in the manufacturing economy.
Tax
Ireland has one of the highest levels of taxes on alcohol in the European Union. Excise receipts from alcohol in Ireland were €1.07bn in 2008.
Alcohol taxes generate 19% of all excise, 8% of all VAT and 5% of the total tax take.
Excise duty receipts as a proportion of total.
Trade
Alcohol is also an important export for Ireland. Drinks exports are worth €1.3bn - 1.5% of the country’s exports come from alcohol. And for every euro Ireland spends on purchasing alcoholic drink imports, it earns €1.79 on those it exports.
Indigenous
Supporting the drinks industry means supporting indigenous businesses - 64% of Ireland’s domestic beer market and 86% of the cider market is supplied by domestic producers. The local raw materials used in the production of Irish spirits amounts to over €127 million.