Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. I appreciate her taking the time to be here. I know she understands the importance of this issue. As Minister of State with responsibility for biodiversity, I am sure she is more aware than most about this issue.

I thank Senator Martin for pushing this, as well as Senator McGreehan. It is great to see all the parties united on this because that is a rare thing. To me, the native Irish bee is like our language or like our hurleys - it is such an integral part of who we are as a nation. We have struggled with our language, we have struggled with our native trees, and now we are struggling with our native bee. It is important that we have had the backing of scientists, of beekeepers and of Comhshaol, which is a great organisation of senior counsel who care about climate so much. We all know there is a biodiversity crisis. It would be hypocritical in some ways if we did not get this Bill passed by the senior civil servants, even though we are saying there is a biodiversity crisis.

I was going to talk about other things but what really hit me today, when I went outside, was that I met a lovely 15-year-old, Cillian Fraher, who is a beekeeper. He is making a living out of it and he is also wheeling and dealing in bits and pieces for the beekeeping industry. If that is not enough of a reason to pass this Bill, I do not know what is. I used to work with green schools which teach about biodiversity. All the children are obsessed with the bee and with saving the bee. We see this everywhere now and SuperValu is sponsoring a thing around it as well, jumping on the bandwagon.

Our native Irish bee is integral to who we are. It is part of our culture and a big and important part of our nature. We have to do all we can to make sure we get this across the line. We have precedent in this regard. The programme for Government does not specifically mention bees but the national pollinator plan states that Ireland has a duty to conserve this genetic resource. The pollinator plan targets promotion and education of beekeepers to protect the native honeybee, so that is in our national plan. There is peer-reviewed research from Dr. Grace McCormack of NUI Galway, so we have scientific backing to show that Ireland has a pure population of apis mellifera mellifera, the native Irish bee.

While I know this is unprecedented in Ireland, it is not unprecedented in other countries. We have seen it on Scottish islands, Finnish islands and Danish islands, which have had similar challenges around native species. The international treaties require Ireland to take action to protect native species where they are at risk from invasive species, which is what we are talking about here. If they were not under threat, we would not be looking for this Bill and neither would the beekeepers. There is an invasive species that is threatening to take over our native species. We must learn from other mistakes we have made in not doing enough for biodiversity and protecting our native species.

This is very important. Senator Martin is a beekeeper so he is not just making it up as he goes along. This is coming from the heart of somebody who is a beekeeper and has worked with many beekeepers around Ireland to better inform himself of this issue. It is very important that we recognise the work of the members of the Native Irish Honey Bee Society, which does its work on a voluntary basis. We have all been volunteers and it can be exhausting. However, they are still here and, hopefully, this Bill will get them what they want and truly deserve.