Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 8 October 2026
13. Deputy Roderic O'Gorman asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when his Department will finalise its response to a research report commissioned from the National University of Ireland, Galway on the protection of the native Irish honey bee which has been with his Department since September 2025. [71023/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Green Party is passionate about bees and protecting the Irish honey bee. We advanced the Protection of the Native Irish Honey Bee Bill during the last Dáil. A piece of research was undertaken by the Department to support that Bill. It is finished but it has been sitting unpublished in the Department for a good while. When will that research be published?
I thank Deputy O'Gorman for his question. Following legal advice in relation to the Protection of the Native Irish Honey Bee Bill 2021, the Department procured independent scientific evidence and in October 2023, a contract was signed with the University of Galway for the provision of research services on the native Irish honey bee. The research work concluded, and the research report was subsequently evaluated by an external expert. Following the completion of the evaluation, the research service provider was afforded the opportunity to respond to the evaluator’s comments and these comments were received in September 2025. The Department is currently finalising the overall response to the report and I intend to bring this evaluation to the attention of the Government in the near future.
The Department is very supportive of beekeepers and beekeeping associations and the work that they do in the conservation of the native Irish honey bee. The annual grants to Irish National Beekeepers Federations, which is Exchequer-funded, provides funding to the four Irish National Beekeepers Federations to help their associated members to pursue the craft of beekeeping to the highest standards and to inform the public about the environmental role that bees play in maintaining Irish biodiversity and crop production. In 2025, the four national beekeeping federations received a total of €25,500 through this measure for various initiatives.
The Department also supports Irish beekeeping under the scheme of investment aid for the development of the horticulture sector through the provision of grant aid for capital investments by individual beekeepers in specialised beekeeping related equipment and structures, including specialised bee breeding equipment and honey extraction equipment.
I thank the Minister of State. Let us look at the timeline here. The contract for this research about the native Irish honey bee was signed in October 2023. That is three years ago now. The research was finished. The paper was then evaluated by an external expert and the expert's comments were then re-evaluated by the original researcher. A finalised report was provided to the Minister of State's Department in September 2025. That is over a year ago now. When will we see that research published? From my experience, when any report is held back for more than a year, it starts to look like the Department does not actually want those particular findings out there. I am sure that is not the case here. Could the Minister of State, therefore, give me a firm timeline of when we are going to see this research published?
To conclude my earlier input, in supporting research initiatives, €121,000 was paid under the national apiculture programme 2025 to support beekeeping through an approved applied research project being conducted by UCD. Our Department also provides funding under the conservation of plant and animal genetic resources scheme. The Native Irish Honey Bee Society received funding in 2021 and 2024 under that scheme for projects related to the conservation of the Irish honey bee.
I understand the Deputy's frustration in relation to this and the frustration among beekeepers and their associations over the time it has taken for the outcome of the research to be published. The process has taken time, including facilitating an extension to NUIG to complete the research report and expert evaluation of the report and the opportunity for NUIG to respond, as I have outlined. I reassure the Deputy that our Department is currently finalising the overall response to the research report produced by NUIG, and publication of the research report will be considered once the Bill progresses in line with the procedures here in the Oireachtas.
I am disappointed that the Minister of State has not been able to give me a clear date today. I am flagging with him that I will be coming back to the issue of the publication of this important report. On the wider issue, could the Minister of State give me the position of his Department on the native Irish honey bee Bill? It passed the Seanad, so the Department of agriculture was prepared to support it in the previous Oireachtas. It is a Green Party Bill. It is under my name at the moment, but I know members of the Minister of State's party and Opposition Members, including Deputy Heneghan, who is in the Chamber, have all voiced their support for measures to protect the native Irish honey bee. We need it because research demonstrates now that about 25% of bees in Ireland are hybrids, so the hybridisation of the native Irish honey bee is increasing. Will the Minister of State and the Government support the Protection of the Native Irish Honey Bee Bill 2021 as I seek to move it through this House?
The Government will be updated on this shortly once the Department finalises its position in relation to it and our position will become clearer then.
