Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 12 June 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs

Threats to Native Bee Population: Discussion

Mr. Paul O'Brien:

It is very simple. In any local supermarket every single fruit and vegetable with a colour is pollinated by a pollinator. Bees are dedicated. Imagine a field of oilseed rape. Bees will come out of their hive, spot the oilseed rape and identify a lovely source of food. Every single bee will repeatedly go back to those flowers until their nectar has been fully exhausted. They are dedicated pollinators. A bumblebee will come along and say hello to a flower before going to the next field. Honey bees go back to the same food source until it is exhausted. That is why they are the primary pollinators. Let us return to the supermarket. If there are no bees, all the coloured fruit and vegetables will be gone.

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