Danny Healy-Rae Questions Carbon Tax, Defends Rural Roads
Danny Healy-Rae challenges prevailing climate policy and argues that historical weather shifts undermine the claim that human activity alone drives climate change. He raises concerns about the cost of climate measures, unsafe rural roads, recurring floods, and the impact of carbon tax on farmers.
Historical perspective
Danny Healy-Rae recalls past periods of dramatic climate variation, citing famines in the 1740s and floods in the 1800s to question the extent to which humans can control the weather. He uses these historical examples to argue for a broader view of climate change causes.
Rural infrastructure and safety
He criticises recent road and cycleway changes in rural areas, saying narrowed carriageways have made passing large vehicles dangerous. He describes local floods-naming the Flesh River-and a night when water covered roads, arguing that maintenance and river clearance are vital to prevent future incidents.
Carbon tax and farming impact
Healy-Rae states he has never voted for a carbon tax and objects to farmers paying it while they sequester carbon through hedges, ditches and grassland. He highlights farmers' compliance with measures like AdBlue and raises concerns about retrofitting grants being refused for some households.
Political consequence
He calls on the government to reconsider carbon taxation and to address rural road safety and flooding urgently. The remarks underline a rural representative's demand for fair treatment of farming communities and practical infrastructure solutions.
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Cathaoirleach, I'm glad to get the opportunity to talk here today, and I suppose, I believe that the climate changes, but I don't agree with others at what's causing the change. Because the facts are, back in history, the climate changed dramatically over the centuries and over the decades. If we went back to the 1740s, Ireland went through a desperate famine, we lost a ton of our population because they died of hunger, and cold, and rain. They couldn't save turf, they had no hay for the cows, the cattle all starved during the winter. That was the 1740s. And go back a couple of centuries before that, the country was burned out of for a whole hundred years from the 13th to the 14th century, or something like that. And then in the 1890s, we had floods in places like Guinea-Bissau, where a bog was washed down into the lakes of Killarney, 12 miles away. There was 11 men above in a field in the Claredon Valley, saving hay, and a flood came down the river from, I suppose, the Lads in Ballywood, in the Cinder West or something. But there was 11 men washed down the river, and that was in the 1800s as well. So I don't agree that we on this earth can change the weather in any way in the world. And it's cost us an awful lot of money, what's going on. They narrowed the road in Fossa, and the two footpaths down either side of it, the national primary road going back to Killarney and then around the Ring of Kerry, they narrowed that road, and the footpaths and the cycleway now on both sides are wider than the actual carriage where the buses and the lorries are supposed to pass each other, going east and going westwards. They were the kind of things. All rivers had not been cleaned out. We're waiting for assessments and reports and this and that. The Flesh River was flooding on today in 22, the national primary road going to Cork, outside of Den Fleshk. I went through it one night in either late 2015 or early 2016, and that was one of the nights that I thought I wouldn't get home, because I didn't know where the road was in the finish. It was three feet over the road, and there's a 10 foot drop inside. The Boxer Morn, after several deputations and requests by myself and many others, cleared the river, got the river cleared. They gave us a small bit of money to clear the river, and we were allowed to clear the river. The road hasn't been flooded since. They're not a facts minister whether you like it or not, or whether you don't want to hear it or not. The other things, we're losing a lot of lives on roads, and people are very hot over that. A lot of pedestrians are being killed along local roads because the hedges haven't caught. People haven't left cotton from all the summer when they've gone mad, and they're walking outside the yellow line because they're afraid their eyes will be picked out inside along the ditch, and then they get hit by motorcars or whatever. During the last protest there, the General Minister Kenny tells us that we must walk more and cycle more. That's hurtful to people who have to go to work, and they have a time limit to go to work. They have to drop off children to school. They have to do a hundred different things and tell them to go cycling or go walking. That's absolutely ridiculous. Now the last thing that I talk about is the carbon tax, which I never ever voted for inside here, or never will. And there was a great case made at an IFA meeting last week by a sound farmer when he said, why should we be paying carbon tax? We're sequestering carbon. We have hedges and ditches, and when we're growing grass, we're sequestering carbon. That's the truth, God's gospel truth. And the other thing, every farmer now is complying and he's putting AdBlue into his tractor or his jeep or whatever it is, his vehicle, and he's still made pay carbon tax. They were the points that the government needs to address. That's not fair, because especially the farmers, they're sequestering more carbon than they're generating. And I'm asking you to look at that. And sadly, I couldn't vote for allowing in October, reducing the carbon tax on to 2030, it doesn't make any sense. And what he is saying to us, where are you going with the carbon tax? For retrofitting. Many people are being refused the retrofitting grant.
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