The Decision announced today (Friday) by Diageo Ireland to cease brewing at St Francis Abbey Brewery after three hundred years of brewing on the famous site has shocked the people of Kilkenny. Speaking on the announced closure, Green Party Borough and County Councillor, Malcolm Noonan said that it was a sad day and a devastating blow for Kilkenny.
‘While the decision is not entirely surprising, given the current global challenges facing the industry and the company’s plans to consolidate it’s activities in Ireland, it is nonetheless a very difficult day for the 93 employees of the brewery and their families’ stated Cllr Noonan. ‘It is equally difficult for the people of Kilkenny to come to terms with the fact that in a few years time, a proud history of brewing will come to an end. St Francis Abbey Brewery is as intrinsic to Kilkenny as St James’s Gate Brewery is to Dublin, its cultural and social value to our City cannot be underestimated’.
‘It is now incumbent on all stakeholders, including public representatives from all parties to work together to deliver alternative employment opportunities for employees and to work with Diageo to develop a sustainable plan for the site that recognises the history and heritage of the area, while offering tourism potential to maintain the vibrancy of Kilkenny’s historic core’.
‘I would also like to see some element of brewing, perhaps a micro brewery and an interpretative centre based on the brewing tradition at St Francis Abbey Brewery to be developed in conjunction with Diageo. This would also have the potential to offer employment opportunites for some of the employees’.
Cllr Noonan concluded by calling on Junior Minister for Trade and Commerce, John McGuinness to engage with relevant State agencies with view to attracting sustainable enterprise and employment for Kilkenny, which has suffered from a lack of inward investment in recent decades, compared with other counties in the South East.
‘We have a five year run in time to come to terms with Diageo’s decision, we must use this time wisely for the betterment of the employees, their families and all the people of Kilkenny’ concluded Cllr Noonan.
