Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Deputy Smith to the debate. We just had it. In breaking news, climate change effects rural Ireland. When I was Minister of State with responsibility for the OPW, I visited Kerry and Cork South West, which Deputies Danny Healy-Rae, Michael Healy-Rae and Michael Collins represent, and we watched parts of our country begin to fall into the sea and begin to flood. The idea of dividing the country into rural and urban Ireland and that climate change does not affect rural Ireland makes the Deputies out of touch on the issue. They do not speak for rural Ireland.

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