The world's first duty-free shop was opened at Shannon airport in 1947, selling Irish linen, French perfumes, German porcelain and liquors to North America-bound passengers.
Twenty per cent of Irish Distillers' whiskey sales are made through dutyfree shops in the EU and elsewhere. If intra-EU duty-free is abolished, the company expects to lose about £10 million worth of business.
Aer Rianta now runs duty-free outlets at the Channel Tunnel, Moscow, Bahrain, Karachi and Beijing. It will soon be running the tobacco and liquor outlets at the biggest passenger terminal in the world, Chek Lap Kok airport in Hong Kong.
Ireland's duty-free market was worth £103 million in 1996.
Only three member-states, Finland, Luxembourg and Sweden, are more reliant on intra-EU duty-free sales than Ireland. Some 85 per cent of our sales will be outlawed if the decision on 1999 takes effect.
Drinks and cigarette suppliers provide big discounts to duty-free outlets, giving them substantial profit margins despite the lower prices.
An estimated 25 per cent of perfume sales are made through duty-free shops.
Only 1 per cent of cigarette sales are duty-free.
Irish duty-free sales, per head of population, are the fourth highest in the EU.
The EU is the largest market for dutyfree sales worldwide, comprising 53 per cent of the total.
The decision to scrap intra-EU dutyfree from June 30th, 1999 was seen as a major reprieve for the industry when taken in 1991, as the European Commission had been pressing for abolition from January 1993.
Albert Reynolds was Minister for Finance when negotiations on the future of duty-free took place. But he was replaced by Bertie Ahern shortly before the decision on 1999 was formally adopted.
