Thomas Byrne

Well, look, I mean, it's like everything else with tariffs in America.

I think it's a wait and see approach.

And if I look at what the U.S.

trade representative has said, that seems to be the approach even in the trade representative office.

It is something that we are pursuing anyway and have been pursuing.

The British have been pursuing this for Scotch in particular for quite some time.

And so have we.

So let's see what comes out of this, as I understand it has not been implemented yet.

But it does show, I think, the huge importance of trade agreements.

Irish whiskey lives and dies by free trade.

We saw in a number of trade agreements recently the benefits to the Irish drinks industry.

I have to say, and I said this publicly.

But with the Mercosur trade agreement, there was literally no discussion from the industry or from anybody else about the benefits to the Irish drinks industry of the Mercosur trade agreement, which then benefits farmers as well.

And I think that we have to be really, really conscious of all sectors of the economy, agriculture, but this includes agriculture too, and other sectors when we're dealing with trade, and to keep pursuing those trade agreements to allow our products to be exported.

We cannot drink enough whiskey in this country to keep all the distilleries going.

We need to sell it abroad.

That would be the case, but that's not necessarily the case yet.

We'll wait and see.

Well, I think we wanted to make sure, first of all, with hauliers, I mean, they were deemed to be a priority at the very, very start because, again, just like I said, the country's an exporting economy.

We need to get product, a physical product, out of the country and that needs lorry drivers.