Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have so much to say about this and I am very excited that we are at this point. I congratulate Senator Martin for his work on this Bill. I am a proud member of the Native Irish Honey Bee Society. I love to get its booklets and information every month because it is something I am passionate about.

A very positive form of nationalism is ecological nationalism. We can really work to look after our own ecology. We can be very insular in this country in looking after what we have - all of our native crops and our native bees.I have a project, Míle Crainn Na hÉireann, that is all about native Irish trees. I have planted approximately 1,500 native Irish trees so far as part of that initiative. It is very important that we embrace it. It is also really important, and is the reason we are here today, that the Department embraces it. We want the Department to be bold, brave, and to say that it will look at EU law and the reality that we have to protect our native biodiversity and our native bees.

I will go local for a minute. County Louth has a very strong tradition of protecting and enhancing bees. The County Louth Beekeepers Association was founded in 1910. Mr. Turlough O'Bryen, who is known as the father of beekeeping, was born in 1853 in Ardee and was reared and educated there. The earliest written record of bees in Ireland dates back to the 12th-century Mellifont Abbey, which takes its name from the fountain of honey. It is also very important to note that the Cooley area, where I hail from, is one of the few places in the world that produces bell honey, which is produced from bees that have gathered nectar from the bell heather. All this beauty and history, and our heritage, is at risk of being lost if we do not act progressively and positively for the protection of bees.

The Minister of State is absolutely in favour of this Bill and there is cross-party acknowledgement and acceptance of it. I know the Taoiseach is a committed biodiversity addict - he takes photographs of butterflies and bees when he is on his evening walks - and is passionate about this matter. He wants this too. We all want this and have accepted it. I have a major ambition for beekeeping and bees. We can work on many areas. We know, and it is widely accepted, that bees are superpowers within their little bodies. Not only do they produce honey, they are essential pollinators in this agricultural country we all belong to. The Department needs to listen to that. As I said, we have a long history of producing quality honey. As we all know, bees have a complicated and innate ability to create and pollinate. However, they need to survive. What they need to survive is incredibly modest: pollen, nectar, honey, water and a safe environment. It is up to us to provide that safe environment.

Pollen and nectar are foraged from nearby flowers. That is why it is so important for bee colonies to be situated near a substantial number of native trees, native flowers and native flora. It is also important we look towards the Department's significant increase in the budget for organic farming in this round of Common Agricultural Policy funding. That is also one of the very important ways we will protect our native bees and all our native insects and pollinators. I have put forward proposals, since our bees are classed as livestock, that we should work towards them being a unit of livestock. Farmers should be encouraged to have beekeeping on their farms and beehives should be classed as a unit of livestock so farmers are able to claim for that and look to that. If we positively encourage, we will get more beehives.

In the context of this Bill, I want to highlight that all honeybees are not born equal. There is a real necessity to protect the native Irish bee. We must protect it from all external species and uphold the integrity of our native stock. Studies from the Limerick Institute of Technology prove this and that we have enough native bee stock to save it. It is low enough to be considered endangered but we have enough to save it and to ensure its native survival across Europe. We can be that island. We can be a safe sanctuary.

I am very excited about this. It could be said I am buzzing about this because it is very important. I look forward to this matter being continued and to bringing it up continuously at parliamentary level because it is necessary, it can be done and I am sure it will be done.