An Irish MP has claimed the Biblical story about Noah’s Ark supports his view that climate change is not being caused by humans because “God above is in charge of the weather”.

Danny Healy-Rae, an independent, told music-and-politics magazine Hot Press said he was basing his views on “facts” and “history”.

Climate scientists were getting “more vehement” about the issue, he claimed, because they were “getting a lot of finance”.

Mr Healy-Rae, a publican in Kilgarvan, Kerry, told a debate in the Irish parliament earlier this year that “God above is in charge of the weather and we here can’t do anything about it”.

And, following a backlash about his remarks, he told Hot Press: “Everyone is entitled to their view. 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.

“Those are facts. There were some centuries when the country was very hot and warm and then there were different centuries with so much rain and cold. So, those are facts.”

He added that while he was a practising Catholic he was “not a holy Joe”.

Mr Healy-Rae sparked international headlines in 2013 when he called for “drink-driving permits” to be issued by police to allow people to drink more than the legal alcohol limit in rural areas.

He said because people could no longer drink in pubs then drive home, some were buying alcohol from supermarkets and drinking alone at home, leading to depression. He said he believed three of his regular customers had taken their own lives partly because of this.

In a wide-ranging interview, Mr Healy-Rae also told Hot Press that he would shoot anyone who broke into his home.

“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 spoke about being portrayed as an “eejjt from Kerry” by Irish newspapers.

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

According to thermometer readings, the average global temperatures has risen by about one degree Celsius in just over a century.

During this time, the level of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases produced by fossil fuels burned in cars, power stations and other machines has also risen.

Laboratory experiments show that adding carbon dioxide to a jar full of air causes it to heat up more quickly.

The vast majority of scientists – the UK's Met Office, Nasa in the US, state-run institutions in China and across the world – support the idea that humans are changing the planet's climate dramatically.