>Tom we have got the same situation in the U.S.. You need to start convincing >your officials that a importation from the U.S. agriculture department to >the Irish agriculture department would be far different than general >importation. > >Show the officials the article in ABJ (Aug. 2002 pg. 591) about the >quarantine procedure the U.S. uses. > Hi Bob The Irish have quite an advantage over us here in the US when it comes to things pertaining to beekeeping. At Gormanston, the Secretary of Agriculture opened the conference, complete with bagpipes. He delivered a great speech which showed an increadible understanding of beekeeping. True, he must have gotten help with the speech, but he clearly understood the basics of beekeeping inside and out. Also, as I found in South Africa, countries with small populations (Ireland about 4 million) have polititians which are more accessible than what we have here. I think perhaps a greater challenge to the Irish being able to import outside genetic material is a pervasive believe in Irish bees having everything genetically necessary to top beekeeping in Ireland. There is also a strong believe that keeping the Irish bee genetically pure is important. I doubt that there will be a strong push for liberalizing importation rules. Regards Tim Vaughan