Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

My views on climate change are well known since my days on Kerry County Council before I ever came to Dáil Éireann. The climate has changed going back over the centuries when there were no fossil fuels and when there was a very limited number of cows, which are being blamed now for the change in the climate. When the weather is wet or rainy, the scientists are blaming what we are doing on this earth for causing it to rain. Likewise they are blaming people now for the fine weather as well. The facts are that since 1850, since what was known as the little ice age, the temperatures have risen by less than one degree.

We are going to set up a committee now, what I call a talking shop, discussing ways of changing the weather that we have not a hope in the world of doing because patterns of climate change happened back over the years before. The Government is suggesting providing millions in Project Ireland 2040 to address climate change. Where will that money come from? Farmers' pockets and workers' pockets who are trying to go to work - that is where is will come from. The Minister has no leprechaun, or if he has I do not know where he is living or where the Minister is keeping him.

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