Diageo Ireland reports €1.9 million investment in Irish communities
2025 Community Impact Report outlines €400,000 invested in cultural initiatives, €384,000 in education and skills, €915,000 in community projects and €165,000 in inclusion programmes
Print2 April 2026
Diageo Ireland has today (2 April) published its 2025 Community Impact Report, setting out the scale, reach, and impact of the company’s community investment over the past year.
The report highlights Diageo’s long-standing commitment to the Irish communities within which they operate, demonstrating how sustained, meaningful investment continues to support the long‑term vitality of the neighbourhoods it is part of.
In 2025, Diageo Ireland invested €1.9 million in community programmes nationwide.
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This support spanned investments in educators, hospitality workers, community groups, and local charities – as well as investments to cultural organisations like Dublin Fringe Festival, Dublin Gallery Weekend and Culture Night through the Guinness Storehouse.
Alongside this, more than 1,100 Diageo Ireland employees took part in community activities throughout the year, contributing 788 volunteering hours across organisations like the Capuchin Day Centre and Little Flower Penny Dinners and helping to raise €122,000 for local charities like St Vincent De Paul, and the Dublin Simon Home Fun Run.
Today’s report details Diageo’s substantial investment in education and skills development, with €384,000 directed towards training programmes and hospitality scholarships through Diageo’s Learning for Life and the Hospitality Access training programme delivered with TU Dublin.
A total of 1,940 people nationwide benefited from these initiatives, helping to build a strong talent pipeline for the hospitality sector and creating long-term professional pathways for learners.
Culture remained a cornerstone of Diageo’s community strategy in 2025, with €400,000 committed to cultural and creative organisations that play a vital role in shaping Dublin life.
Through the Guinness Storehouse’s multi‑year partnerships with organisations such as Culture Night, Dublin Fringe Festival, Dublin Gallery Weekend, and the These Walls project, Diageo supported initiatives that open cultural spaces to wider audiences, champion emerging artists, celebrate neighbourhood identity, and bring people together.
These partnerships also advance broader cultural participation by ensuring that arts and cultural experiences remain accessible to all communities.
Across festivals, public art projects, and grassroots cultural programmes, Diageo’s support helped strengthen Ireland’s cultural ecosystem and foster vibrant, connected communities in Dublin.
Under its Community Projects and Charitable Contributions pillar, Diageo invested €915,000 across Ireland in 2025.
A key feature of this was the launch of the five-year Guinness Dublin 8 Community Fund with The Guinness Storehouse, established to support grassroots organisations in one of Ireland’s most dynamic and diverse neighbourhoods.
The company also continued to advance its Inclusion & Diversity priorities, investing €165,000 in initiatives aimed at building more equitable, welcoming environments in our workplaces and visitor experiences, examples of which can be seen at the Guinness Storehouse.
These investments supported community partners, employee-led programmes, and public initiatives designed to foster fairness and belonging for our employees and those visiting our tourism spaces.
One feature of this work was the partnership with the NOW Group, through which Diageo’s Marshalls Road packaging site employed neuro-diverse interns in 2025 with the aim of supporting them to build their employment skills and experience.
The 2025 Community Impact Report reflects Diageo Ireland’s ongoing ambition to ‘make a tangible impact’ on the communities where it operates, particularly Dublin 8, and sets out a vision for continued, long-term engagement that creates shared value for employees, partners, and residents.
Shane Kelly, director of Corporate Relations at Diageo Ireland, said: “Our community engagement is rooted in Dublin 8, where we’ve worked closely with local partners to deliver meaningful impact together for more than 260 years.
“Every programme we support, every training opportunity we help deliver, and every cultural initiative we back are shaped by the fact that communities know best what works for them, and our role is to listen, support, and invest in ways that create lasting value.”
Austin Campbell, chief executive officer of The Liberties Community Project, said: “At The Liberties Community Project, we see first-hand how sustained, place-based partnerships like that which Diageo deliver on can create real impact.
“The Liberties Festival provides an example of that impact in action.
“With Diageo’s support this year, we were able to run more than 60 events across the neighbourhood and ensured everything remained free and accessible to the community.
“A highlight was the creation of Batch Bread Red Ale, a collaboration between brewers at the Guinness Open Gate Brewery, local Dublin 8 suppliers like Bee8, and Dublin 8 publicans, reflecting the area’s long-standing traditions and strong sense of community.
“But really, the festival’s strength comes from the community itself, and Diageo’s backing allowed us to make it bigger, more inclusive and more impactful for the people who live here.”
Read more: Diageo reports mixed half‑year results
© 2026, ShelfLife by Ryan Brennan
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