Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There is no way a report can be produced on safe limits because some people drink half a glass of water per day and others drink half a gallon. I know people who never drink water. I am concerned about them because water that has not been poisoned is good for them. When we were children we drank large quantities of water, particularly during the summer. The forum report from 2001 was quoted by the Fianna Fáil Member but a vital piece of information was missing from that report because the FSAI would have been required to sit one more time to produce it. That would have taken another day or week.

The Ireland of today is a long way from the Ireland of 50 years ago. We have moved away from Archbishop McQuaid giving his blessing to policies. The basis for the introduction of fluoridation was completely flawed. In 1956 the fluoride consultative council was established by the then Minister for Health, Thomas F. O'Higgins of Fine Gael. The council's chairperson was the professor of social and preventive medicines and registrar at University College Dublin, Thomas A. Murphy. The aim of the council was to advise whether, with a view to reducing the incidence of dental caries, it was desirable to provide for an increased intake of fluorine and, if it considered it so desirable, to advise as to the best method of securing such an increased intake along with any precautions and safeguards necessary. A new Government in 1957 saw Seán McEntee appointed as Minister for Health. Meanwhile, Professor Murphy had been sent on a fluoridation fact finding mission to the United States, where scientists sponsored by the US public health service unsurprisingly gave him an overwhelmingly positive report on the safety and dental benefits of fluoridation given that the service was promoting it. Soon after Professor Murphy gave his report to the Minister, Mr. McEntee, the latter introduced a water fluoridation Bill to the Dáil. According to the former Fine Gael Minister for Finance, Richie Ryan, there was an incredible pro-fluoridation bias in the debate. He recounted in a recent interview with Hot Press that throughout the debate on fluoridation in the Dáil and the legal proceedings in the courts, whenever there was tittle tattle from any part of the pro-fluoridation lobby across the world, the Department of Health issued a press release but it never revealed that certain nations voted down fluoridation. In other words, it carried out a propaganda campaign. I recall when Richie Ryan was Minister for Finance.

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