I am glad to get the opportunity to speak here today. I believe the climate change, but I do not agree with others about what is causing the change. Climate has changed dramatically over the centuries and decades. In the 1740s, Ireland went through a desperate famine and we lost a third of our population due to hunger, cold and rain. People could not save turf, had no hay for their cows and cattle starved over the winter. The country was burned out of it for 100 years in the 13th or 14th century. In the 1890s, there were floods in places like Gneeveguilla, where a bog was washed into the Lakes of Killarney 12 miles away. In a field in the Clydagh Valley, 11 men were washed down the river by a flood that affected the lads in Ballynavenooragh, Fenit west or something. I do not agree we on this earth can change the weather in any way. What is going on is costing us an awful lot of money. The road in Fossa, a national primary road going back to Killorglin and around the Ring of Kerry, was narrowed and there are now footpaths and a cycleway on both sides beside the carriageway. Buses and lorries have to pass each other going east and west. Our rivers are not being cleaned. We are waiting for assessments, reports and this and that. The Flesk river flooded in 2022, which affected the national primary road to Cork outside of Glenflesk. I went through it in late 2015 or early 2016 and I thought I would not get home that night because I did not know where the road finished. The water was 3 ft over the road and there is a 10 ft drop at the side. After several requests and deputations by me and many others, the Minister of State, Deputy Kevin Boxer Moran, cleared the river. He gave us a small bit of money and we were allowed to clear the river. The road has not flooded since. Those are the facts, whether the Minister of State likes them or wants to hear them or not. We are losing a lot of lives on roads. People are very hurt over that. A lot of pedestrians are being killed along local roads because the hedges are not cut. People are not allowed to cut them in the summer when the hedges have gone mad. Pedestrians are walking outside the yellow line because they are afraid their eyes would be picked out along the ditch, and then they get hit by motorcars or whatever. During the last protest, the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, told us that we must walk and cycle more. That is hurtful to people who have a time limit to get to work. People have to drop off children to school and do 100 different other things. To tell them to go cycling or walking is absolutely ridiculous. The last thing I will mention is the carbon tax, which I never voted for in this Chamber and never will. A great case was made at an IFA meeting last week by a sound farmer. He questioned why they should be paying carbon tax when they are sequestering carbon. They have hedges and ditches and when they are growing grass, carbon is being sequestered. That is the God’s gospel truth. Every farmer is complying and putting AdBlue into his tractor, jeep or whatever vehicle it is but he or she is still made to pay carbon tax. Those are the points the Government needs to address. It is not fair, especially on farmers because they sequester more carbon than they generate. I ask the Government to look at that. In October I certainly could not vote to allow the Government to extend reducing the carbon tax to 2030. It does not make any sense. The Government states that the carbon tax goes towards retrofitting but many people are refused the retrofit grant.

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