Former president Mary Robinson has been accused of living in cloud cuckoo land after saying people should "eat less meat, or no meat at all" due to the toll its production takes on the environment.

Independent TD Michael Fitzmaurice said the comments were more indicative "of a time long ago when the British aristocrats lived in big houses in this country with huge wealth and the poor peasants starved outside the gates".

The Roscommon-Galway Deputy took issue with a statement made by Mrs Robinson in Ottawa, Canada at the One Young World summit, in which she said people should consider becoming vegetarian or vegan.

She argued strongly in favour of “climate justice” and spoke of the number of toys her grandchildren have as an example of over-consumption.

“We have to change, we cannot go on with business as usual. We need each of us to think about our carbon footprint. Eat less meat, or no meat at all. Become vegetarian or vegan. Let’s commit to the Paris agreement. Let’s commit to leave no one behind,” she said.

‘Incredulity’

Mr Fitzmaurice said he had read Mrs Robinson’s comments “with incredulity”.

It was, he said, “one of the most bizarre statements that I have heard anyone of influence make in a long time. I am especially surprised that it is coming from a woman who comes from a county (Mayo) that is so reliant on agriculture.”

Mr Fitzmaurice queried “what plans would Mrs Robinson have for the tens of thousands of farmers that would be put out of business, or the tens of thousands of people who would become unemployed as a result of losing their jobs in the meat and food industries?”

Livestock-rearing is seen as a major producer of greenhouse gases due to the amount of methane and slurry produced by the animals. With the world’s population growing and demand for meat increasing, scientists have said that a widespread switch to vegetarianism would cut food-related emissions by nearly two-thirds.

Mr Fitzmaurice noted the comments came “from Mrs Robinson who has spent most of her life flying around the world putting up millions of air miles, not to mention having been driven around in gas guzzling limousines for the past number of decades. What about her own carbon footprint?”

What she said “smacks of a time long ago when the British aristocrats lived in big houses in this country with huge wealth and the poor peasants starved outside the gates. We certainly do not want to go back to that situation.”

He concluded: “Let us have a debate about climate change, but let us do it in a realistic way. This intervention of Mary Robinson is not a help in that debate in any way.”