INDEPENDENT TD Danny Healy-Rae has blamed nuclear testing for the hole in the Ozone layer.
The Kerry politician told the Dáil yesterday that testing in the Pacific Ocean 50 years ago had led to "serious damage to the Ozone layer".
During a debate on the ratification of the Paris Climate Change Agreement, he claimed "untruths have been bandied about" about climate change for years.
"There was (sic) changes in the climate way back in time when there was no industrialisation and way less animals on farms and no intensification of farming," he said.
"Yet we had intense heat, long periods of very cold, wet weather which culminated in many lives being lost in the famine in the 1740s, caused by two years of incessant rain and extremely cold winters."
"El Nino and the Gulf Stream played a significant part in climate change going back the centuries. There have been a lot untruths bandied about going back for many years.
"They told us about the ozone layer and there was greenhouse gases from cans of hairspray or whatever but they never told us that it was nuclear testing in the Pacific Ocean 50 years ago actually caused the serious damage to the Ozone layer.
"Thankfully it is mending and it is curing and it is not anything to do with policies in any country in recent times."
Following the debate on the Paris Climate Agreement, a small number of TDs agreed to approve the ratification process, making Ireland the 11th EU member state to ratify the agreement reached last December in the French capital.
