Patterns of climate change have taken place and mankind had no hand, act or part in it, according to Independent TD for Kerry, Danny Healy-Rae.
The Kerry TD was speaking in Dail Eireann yesterday and said that he does “not agree with all the talk of climate change”.
Furthermore, he said that “God above is in charge of the weather and that we here cannot do anything about it”.
Healy-Rae said that there have been patterns of climate change going back over the years before there was ever a combustible engine working in this or any other country.
“If we go back to the 11th and 12th centuries, this country was roasted out of it, and in the 15th and 16th centuries we were drowned out of it.
“In the 1740s we had a famine in which we lost more than 3 million people because of two years of bad weather.”
Speaking to Deputy Eamon Ryan, he said that at the time of the famine we did not have any combustible engine or anything like it.
Deputy Ryan referred to cattle and suckler cows. There was not a fraction of the number of cows in Ireland at that time that there are now.
“Patterns of climate change took place and mankind had no hand, act or part in it. It was just something that happened.
“If one goes further back, the country was covered in ice during the Ice Age, and if one then goes forward to the 1860s and 1880s, this country was drowned out of it.
“In one particular year the sun did not shine at all, and there were not yet any combustible engines in the country.”
He believes the previous Government did not do what it was supposed to do, not to mind attempting to regulate or rectify the weather.
“One Minister suggested we should put €3.5 million aside to improve weather forecasting, but that will not change the weather.”
The Independent TD continued that it has been said that climate change is the cause of flooding in the country, but he said the flooding is due to the fact that rivers have not been cleaned out.
“The River Shannon was not cleaned out since the English last cleaned it out. Perhaps if that river were cleaned there would not be half the flooding or the need for funding to be set aside to deal with flooding.”
We must deal with the root of the problem. The rivers are silted up. They are blocked with trees and every other kind of obstruction.
“We must start there and not get carried away with the notion of addressing climate change by hoping to change the weather. That is my view on climate change.”
Speaking about the carbon tax, he said that it is costing all sectors of the community massive sums of money.
“It is hurting the young fellow going to work in the morning. It is hurting the fellow with a lorry on the road. It is hurting those with tractors on farms. The question is where the money being collected in carbon tax is going.”