Beekeepers across the island of Ireland have collectively called for the establishment of an all-Ireland coordinated bee inspection service to help regulate the industry and mitigate the risks posed to the existing pollinator population on the island.
The call follows confirmation of the recent collapse of the bee inspection service in Northern Ireland, which a spokesperson for the Ulster Beekeepers’ Association (UBKA) claimed has contributed to a looming bee health “crisis” in the country.
As it stands, apiculture falls under the remit of the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) in Northern Ireland and the Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (DAFM) in the Republic of Ireland.
According to the UKBA and the Federation of Irish Beekeepers’ Associations (FIBKA), there is currently no dedicated professional bee inspector in situ on the island of Ireland, which, in their opinion, poses a “real threat” to both industry and biodiversity interests.
The threat is exacerbated by the proliferation of bee diseases, which can disseminate entire hives if they go undetected, without the necessary implementation of counter biosecurity measures to tackle further spread.
UBKA chairperson, Valentine Hodges, outlined the gravity of the situation at hand: “Bee diseases are a real threat to bees in Northern Ireland and DAERA is required, by law, to operate a bee inspection service to inspect possible outbreaks of diseases such as European Foul Brood, and to take necessary steps to prevent its spread.
“The current crisis has been on the cards for some years, with the UBKA and the Ulster Farmers Union (UFU) warning the government that it’s running down of the DAERA Bee inspectorate was unlawful and a threat to both farmers and beekeepers alike.
“Bee diseases pose no risk to public health but represent a very great risk to bees and to agriculture in general, which is highly dependent on bees as pollinators. Simply put, we could lose them all [bees], and very quickly at that.”
According to Hodges, the NI bee inspection service has been vacant as of December 2024, due to the respective retirement and death of the last two remaining inspectors.
Hodges claimed that even prior to that, the service had long been in decline, with only six inspections said to have taken place in 2024, which is a fraction of the rates observed in previous years.
Hodges stated that during a meeting held with the association and government representatives on March 12, 2025, senior DAERA officials allegedly admitted that the department cannot currently meet its statutory responsibilities to provide a competent Bee inspection service.
Beekeepers
While DAERA has committed to the recruitment of new inspectors in the near future, the UBKA fears that the service will not be up in running until the end of 2025 at the latest.
In the meantime, both the UBKA and UFU have pressed the Stormont executive to take emergency actions to seek support from well-established bee inspector services in Scotland and England, to help address the critical absence of services.
In relation to the situation in Ireland, FIBKA secretary Ken Norton has attested to the absence of a dedicated DAFM inspector.
“In regards to a bee inspector in DAFM, there is no current one and there has not been one for many many years. A bee inspector is needed both in the north and south.
“With the increase in people taking up beekeeping, many of whom do not undertake a beekeeping training course or join an association, there is the danger that a lot will just follow what they see on YouTube or Facebook, which don’t always relate to the situation in Ireland.
“Many will also not be aware if they have American Foulbrood or European Foulbrood, both of which are notifiable diseases, and if detected, require everything to be burnt, including the bees,” Norton explained.
Norton also accounted for the ongoing problems relating to the importation of bees into the country, which requires a licence and accreditation from a vet declaring the bees free of disease.
The current accreditation process lacks credibility, Norton asserted, due to the absence of trained bee inspectators who are well-informed about apiculture industry.
“When bees arrive in the country, they have to be inspected, but as there is no bee Inspector to do this, someone from DAFM is sent out to check them instead. However, not all of them will know what to look for and many are afraid of bees,” he said.
A spokesperson for the Irish Beekeepers’ Association (IBA), Colette O’Connell, has expressed further concern over the impending arrival of the Asian Hornet, which preys upon indigenous pollinator species and has already wreaked havoc in Europe.
O’Connell told Agriland that beekeeper inspectors in the UK were able to lead the defence against an invasion of Asian Hornets, who had successfully set up nests in the southeast of England.
“Since this threat was recognised, we in the IBA have consistently urged DAFM to take urgent action to ensure the protection of honey bees and other pollinators.
“We continue to advocate for a co-ordinated effective action plan for the whole island. We do this with the wholehearted support of our colleagues in Ulster, the UBKA,” O’Connell asserted.
