This bill was submitted on the 20th of October. The Bill entitles an Act to ban the importation of non-native honey bees with the aim of reducing the threat to and adverse impact upon biodiversity and the ecosystem arising from the introgression/crossing/cross-breeding of the native Irish Honey Bee, Apis mellifera mellifera, due to the importation of non-native species or sub-species of and/or strains derived from Apis mellifera and to provide for the appointment of authorised officers; to make it an offence to forge an animal health certificate; and to provide for related matters is handed in to the dail. If you wish to read more about the bill, please follow this link
Originally, the European Dark Honey Bee covered a habitat that stretched from Ireland to central Europe but due to a variety of reasons such as importation of other breeds, cross breeding and disease, their numbers have dropped significantly. It is thought that Ireland may be one of the last bastions of pure Amm in Europe. in 2017 researchers sampled 275 colonies of bees and through molecular analysis methods they determined the genetic build up of these samples. the result was that over 95% of the samples was pure AMM. More research is to be done through NUI Galway.
We at boomtreebees are taking part in the research for years to come. Its all about safeguarding what we have in Ireland. If we are to protect this unique situation Ireland is in regarding a population of pure AMM then this bill needs to be pasted.