I see Minister McConalogue is supporting a campaign for staycationers to visit whiskey distilleries.

The campaign only includes 24 distilleries across Ireland and many of the brands which use 100% Irish grain are not among those 24.

The Irish farmer is one of the main selling points of Irish whiskey.

The distilleries tell the tourists about the farmers drawing in grain on their horse and cart, yet much of it is produced from imported maize.

Some distilleries on the list use thousands of tonnes of imported maize – one was estimated to use over 120,000t/year.

The minister should be working to increase the amount of grain for the distilling industry being produced from low-emission farms in Ireland. It could solve a lot of problems.

The Minister for Tourism can support the distillery tours.

Surely, the Minister for Agriculture should be focusing on Irish grain getting into the distilleries.