Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

-----but I am rejecting the Bill. I am rejecting the simple, bald proposition that the House vote to repeal the 1960 Act. Without any doubt, I am rejecting that. I do not want there to be any doubt about that.

If what Deputy Stanley and others are saying - in the spirit of what Deputy Mathews stated, although I did not agree with what he said at the very end - is that the public are entitled to information, to have a debate and to know about the research, rather than having me stand up and say that I have looked at it, I have had the advice of the expert group and I am satisfied that the expert group is not the Lard Council, as has been suggested, but is a genuinely committed public body determined to ensure that the best research is made available, assessed and reviewed - in other words, if it is being suggested that the material should be available to the public, rather than just being asserted by me, and that people should have a forum and an opportunity to discuss, examine and review that material - I entirely agree. Maybe that is what Fridays should be about, in a sense.

My problem - I say this because I do not want there to be any doubt about it - is that the Bill to repeal the 1960 Act is not acceptable and is not accepted by the Government. If Members of the House, in the context of the concerns that are communicated to TDs, Senators and otherwise, want to ensure that this discussion happens and that I, as Minister, come in with the information that I have - perhaps even with an opportunity to question witnesses, etc. - it seems there is a forum in the Oireachtas for that to be done. In my respectful submission, it is not the way to proceed - neither this Bill, nor Deputy Clare Daly's suggestion that we take a chance on a temporary change of policy. I do not accept that taking a chance like that on people's health is the right way to go and I am not prepared to experiment in the manner in which she suggested, I am quite sure, in good faith. Taking a chance for a few months or years is simply not going to be done.

It comes back to the question of our role as legislators. Everybody in here has stated that we are not scientists. There is an issue of public trust. Whoever quoted the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Gilmore, reflected a general concern that exists across society. Over the past few years, trust in many public institutions, including this one, has been considerably undermined.

That has arisen to some extent because of the crisis but also for other reasons. How should we respond? We clearly cannot reject public concerns or ignore our constituents when they tell they are worried about the potential for bone and breast cancer, or any of the other conditions which people have suggested are connected with fluoridation, for which I say there is no evidence. I am not suggesting that Deputies should refrain from raising those issues but sometimes what we say in this Chamber can contribute to public concerns. If, for example, our constituents hear us raise the concern that fluoridation may be connected to this or that illness, they may believe there is a genuine basis for such assertions even though we are only expressing concern. It is almost a circular argument. We raise the concerns that have been expressed with us and when others hear us they become concerned as a result.

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