Commenting on reports from the Treasury that the Chancellor of the Exchequer will announce in Wednesday’s Budget that pubs could serve at least one beer from a small local brewery, Director of CAMRA NI Ruth Sloan said:
“Any review of access to market for independent local breweries by the UK Government must include Northern Ireland where pubgoers are denied access to great locally-produced beer at the bar.
“This is because of a toxic combination of an outdated alcohol licensing system which stops people opening new, smaller and specialist pubs – and multinational brewing giants using their power in the market to prevent local beer from NI’s independent producers being sold on taps at the bar.
“With the Executive due to respond to an independent review of our outdated licensing system in the coming weeks, together with this UK Government review, now is the time to modernise the way NI’s beer, breweries and pubs work so that local people can enjoy a better range of interesting and quality local products.”
