Independent TD Danny Healy-Rae has said the biblical story of Noah's Ark supports his controversial claim that climate change does not exist.

Mr Healy-Rae also said he voted against the Marriage Equality Referendum because he believes it is "not natural" for a gay couple to raise a child.

And the Kerry TD said he is not in favour of changing the Constitution to allow abortion in cases of fatal foetal abnormalities or rape as "there are ways of dealing with" those issues under our current legal system.

Mr Healy-Rae has been adamant in his view that only God can control the weather and came under fire when he denied climate change existed during a Dáil debate.

And now, in an interview with 'Hot Press' magazine, the Kerry TD has insisted the Old Testament story of God telling Noah to build an ark so he could be spared from apocalyptic floods backs up his claim.

"I'm basing my views on facts. The facts are there and history proves it. We had the Ice Age. We had Noah's Ark. We had all those stories. We've proof of the Famine in 1740, which was caused by two years of incessant rain," Mr Healy-Rae said.

"There were some centuries when the country was very hot... and then there were different centuries with so much rain and cold. So, those are facts," he added.

He also suggested that scientists who are proposing climate change theories are "getting a lot of finance" and that is why they are "more vehement about it".

On the same-sex marriage referendum, he said he voted 'No' as "going back, it was always a man and a woman produced a baby and brought them up. And that's the way I felt it should continue".

Read more

Read More

He also described himself as a practising Catholic but "not a holy Joe" in the interview, due to be published tomorrow.

Mr Healy-Rae, who made history when he and his brother Michael were elected to the Dáil after the last general election, also insisted he would shoot an intruder entering his home in Kilgarvan. "I'd aim for their legs first. I'd immobilise them first, or something like that, if there was no other way of dealing with them. I'd have no problem with that. It's ridiculous where the law actually favours the criminal in some of these incidents," he said.

He also believes gardaí should carry guns to give them an "equal chance" against armed criminals.

Read more

Read More

Mr Healy-Rae repeated his call for gardaí to be given the power to issue drink driving licences to certain people in rural communities.

He believes some people should be allowed drink "two or three" pints and still drive home. The idea, which would see gardaí grant permits allowing people drink more than the legal limit, was proposed by the politician three years ago and was aimed at tackling the issue of loneliness among older people living in rural Ireland.

Mr Healy-Rae, who is also a publican, said three of his regular customers fell into depression and took their own lives after drink driving laws prevented them from visiting his pub. However, he does not agree with Minister John Halligan's view that prostitution should be legalised.

"I get a lot of requests at clinics and my phone never stops ringing... but I've never been asked by any of those people to see if we could get a woman for them in that way," he said.

He added that he finds it hurtful when some sections of the media make fun of his views, but he does not let it get to him.

"The one thing those people miss when they are criticising us, they are also criticising and making little of [those] who voted for us," he said.

Irish Independent

Independent.ie