Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Chathaoirligh. I want to begin by strongly commending Senator Mary-Ann O'Brien on putting forward tonight's motion. It is important that the people's Parliament here in the Oireachtas discusses an issue of fundamental human health. Whether one agrees with the fluoridation of water, or where there is conflicting scientific evidence as to whether the fluoridation of water is beneficial to human health, it is only right that we should debate it here. I have read many journal articles in this area. As a former food technologist I have a particular interest in the area, and as someone who worked in the food safety sector, I would like to think that I know something about it. One must only look at the conflicting evidence that is coming from all over the world. One would have to, on looking into one's heart, say that there is a need for a systematic review of our fluoridation of our public water drinking supplies. Simply because of the existence of conflicting evidence, one would have to at least look at doing that.
When the legislation was brought forward in 1960, a young Fine Gael Deputy at the time put forward an amendment which was accepted by the Government requesting that there would be periodic reviews of the fluoridation of our public water supplies. There have been ad hocreviews and surveys but there has been no conclusive review. One recent review was carried out by the Department of Health in January, but it only scratches at the surface; it does not look at the conflicting international evidence and does not come up with a detailed response to all of that. I ask why this is the case. People will pay for their water from this day forth and therefore an individual who is purchasing a public good will purchase that good whether or not they agree with the fact that there is fluoride added to the water. Is that right? I do not think so. They are paying for a product. They may not agree with what is in the product so therefore why should they have to pay for the product because they have no alternative way of getting that water into their property? There are fundamental and ethical questions in that alone.
It costs €10 million a year to fluoridate our public water supply. The product specification given by the company that supplies the fluoride to the HSE, Chemifloc limited, is alarming when one reads the list of what is contained in the parameter elements of fluoride - things like arsenic, mercury, nickel, lead, selenium. Not since 1960 has the Department of Health in Ireland undertaken any environmental impact analysis of fluoride.