Mr. Paul O'Brien:

It would. I will answer this in two ways to give a bit of positivity. When I started in beekeeping, I was invited to a school once every two years if I was lucky. I would go in and they would look and they would be horrified when they saw bees. I always go to the eight year old classes, I do six schools in my district, and, in recent years, when I go in, the kids are not terrified of bees. They know more about bees than I ever did at their age, they are hugely positive and they contact me when they see a bumblebee or something in difficulty. The positivity is there with all the youth. They have it and they understand it. We see them on the streets protesting about the earth and the climate. They are ahead of the game and we are only catching up as elderly adults. We missed the game here a few years back but the children are positive.

This is the first time we have been asked to any Oireachtas committee to speak about the bees so I thank the committee for that. This is the first opportunity we have ever had. I represent 3,500 members. It is a voluntary organisation and we get a pittance of €8,000 each year to keep it running. We conduct two surveys every year for the Government and that is where most of our money goes. We do not have any bee health inspectors and we do not have any bee support inspectors. In England, there are bee supports and instead of going to see the vet, one goes to see the bee support inspector to address a problem.

We get free testing from Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. The Department pays for health inspections on our bees. We send samples, which we used to pay for but for the last two years it has been free so that is a slightly positive move. However, a lot of money is coming into the country for research and everything else but we do not get it on the ground.

There are 3,200 beekeepers, each one with up to three or four hives. Each hive has about 60,000 bees so we are doing our bit. On support for beekeepers, this has been the first opportunity to talk to Government representatives at an equal level and we thank the committee for that. We would like more media attention but we are volunteers. We try our best and, to be fair to Mr. Norton, he is running around ragged. I used to do his job and the members have all met the late Phillip McCabe. God rest his soul he is gone. He was an Irishman who was president of Apimondia. We have done our best but we our hands are tied because we are a voluntary organisation and we are trying to get there.