According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency transportation accounts for some 14 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, that’s transport by the way, not just cars.

Transport includes many different things, yes millions of cars burning fossil fuels but also buses, trains, aircraft, trucks, vans, oil tankers, fishing trawlers, electric bikes, horses, camels, motorised skateboards, farting joggers etc.

When you think about it there really is a lot more to transport than just the private car, but listening to some eco-fundamentalists you would think that the private car is the single biggest contributor there is to global warming. If transport contributes 14 per cent of emissions then lets be generous to the eco-freaks and say that the private car contributes 60 per cent of that.

That means that the car is responsible for maybe six or seven per cent of overall greenhouse gas emissions. The contribution of Irish motorists to greenhouse gas emissions, given that we number just four and a bit million of the world’s 6.8 billion or so people must be a fraction of 0.1 per cent.

If we (the Irish) gave up driving vehicles of all sorts tomorrow the impact on global emissions would be akin to urinating into a hurricane. It would have no impact whatsoever on the storm but we would pay the price for our folly.

Enter the Green Party in the shape of Cork’s own Dan Boyle who last week suggested that speed limits on all our roads should be reduced. The unelected senator believes that we should be limited to 60mph on motorways and 50 mph on national roads in an effort to reduce our fuel consumption and meet our Kyoto targets.

You may already be chuckling at this hair-brained nonsense but hold your breath there for a second, they are actually serious about this. They are bringing the proposal to cabinet I jest not. No doubt Trevor Sargent who recently advocated a return to using horses and carts for transporting goods will be in favour.

Is it not enough that motorists already provide 15 per cent of the tax take, is it really fair to persecute those responsible for less than 0.1 per cent of global emissions even further. If you’re in the Green Party, apparently it is.