Luke Flanagan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate Deputy Brian Stanley on bringing forward this very important Bill which I will support. Having listened to the Deputy and read about the so-called expert group on fluoridation, I am reminded of a comic from the 1980s and 1990s called Viz. Every now and then it would carry an advertisement showing a child with a stick of lard in his mouth with the caption "Lard is good for you" and in small print underneath, "The Lard Council". It sounds a little like this expert group which is not quite independent. Before I heard the Minister of State's speech, I was under an illusion that he might support this Bill. That illusion was based on the fact that Fine Gael, before it entered government, had told us it was against fluoridation.

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