Mr. Ken Norton:

We also need the all-Ireland pollinator plan to be adopted by as many local authorities as possible. Louth County Council adopted it recently and all of the roundabouts in the county have been converted into wildflower meadows. That is helping pollinators and an excellent idea. Tidy Towns committees should also be encouraged to become more involved in the all-Ireland pollinator plan. As the committee knows, 75% of what we consume must be pollinated, either by bees or another pollinator. If all pollinators were to die tomorrow, we would not necessarily die, but we would be left with only 25% of foodstuffs that do not need to be pollinated and our diet would be very limited.

We would die rather more quickly because we would be left with a limited diet meaning we would get sick more often and so on. We need to protect the 75% we are talking about.