Michael Mullins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join Senator Darragh O'Brien in saying that the leaking of a significant report like this is certainly not in the public interest. It shows grave disrespect to the Members of the Oireachtas that a significant report like this which I hope will be debated in a calm and reasoned manner in this House would be leaked. Whoever is responsible for leaking the report should be made to pay and held accountable. It is incumbent on the Government to investigate the source of the leak. The first discussion of the report should have been in the Houses of the Oireachtas after the Cabinet had seen it and approved its publication.

All Members may recently have received a significant amount of correspondence on the link between water fluoridation and cancer incidence in Ireland, with a much lower rate of cancer in Northern Ireland which does not have water fluoridation compared to the Republic of Ireland.

It drew a comparison between a much lower rate of cancer in Northern Ireland where there is no water fluoridation and the Republic, and the figures are alarming. Reputedly, the Republic has a 14% higher incidence of bladder cancer, a 23% higher incidence of pancreatic cancer and a 29% higher incidence of prostate cancer. It is important that we would get clarification on whether that information is accurate. I ask the Leader to arrange for the Minister for Health to come to the House in the coming weeks for a debate on this critical health issue, with possibly an expert present who would give us some steer on whether this information is accurate, because if that is the case this country has a serious health problem here which, if the information we are being supplied with is correct, is being caused by the fluoridation of water.