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Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 13 May 1943

Vol. 90 No. 2

Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Dietetic Quality of Flour.

asked the Minister for Local Government and Public Health whether he has received representations from the Dietetic Council recommending the addition of calcium to the flour in this country to offset the effect of the phytic acid content of 100 per cent. extraction flour in preventing calcium absorption; and, if so, whether he proposes to take the necessary steps to give effect to this recommendation.

I understand that the suggestion was made by the Dietetic Council to the Department of Supplies and that the matter was the subject of discussion between the council and that Department.

Was the Parliamentary Secretary sufficiently interested to inquire the nature of the representations made by the Dietetic Council?

I should be glad to consider any views that the Dietetic Council may have to furnish on the matter.

Was the Parliamentary Secretary sufficiently interested to inquire from the Department of Supplies the nature of the recommendations made by the Dietetic Council on the matter?

One would think that, if the Dietetic Council were very much interested in the matter, they would have expressed their views to the Department of Local Government and Public Health.

What I am saying is that the Parliamentary Secretary ought to interest himself in a dietetic question. Between hopping and trotting, will the Minister for Local Government consult the Department of the Minister for Supplies, and see that someone will put calcium in the bread?

I suggest to the Deputy that his advisers should get in touch with the Department of Local Government and Public Health, and afford us an opportunity of discussing this highly contentious and highly scientific subject.

I have already raised this matter several times. Will any responsible Minister accept responsibility for determining the question whether nursing mothers and young children are to continue to suffer in their health, as a result of the failure to put calcium in the bread? Someone has put the information of experts in the hands of the Government, and if it is not in the hands of the right Minister, will he go and ask the wrong Minister to give it to him?

Is the Deputy not aware of the fact—as I think I informed him on previous occasions, when this matter was under discussion—that the viewpoint he expressed here as to the advisability of a uniform calcification or fortification of flour is not generally accepted by the medical profession? There is an acute difference of opinion in Britain—where fortification has been carried out, but by no means with the full approval of the scientific medical world.

Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that the views to which he has just given expression are antediluvian and were certainly out of date many years ago, that all modern opinion is virtually unanimous, and that that point of view is now growing?

Nonsense.

By not following the calcium work in Great Britain with the addition of calcium to 100 per cent. extraction bread, material injury is done to expectant mothers and infant children, owing to the destruction of calcium.

The Deputy is entirely misinformed.

I am not, but I will hammer that into the Parliamentary Secretary's head in time.

I am not at present prepared to hear any more about dietetic experts.

The Parliamentary Secretary may laugh at his own incompetence.

I know more about this than the Deputy.

Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise.

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