Vol. 534 No. 1
44 Mr. Gormley asked the Minister for Health and Children the reason the minutes for the Fluorine Consultative Council appointed in January 1957 are not fully available to the public; the further reason the minutes of only one meeting exist; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9965/01]
Between January 1957 and June 1958 the Fluorine Consultative Council held 15 meetings under the chairmanship of Professor Thomas Murphy, Professor of Social and Preventive Medicine at University College Dublin. The council's report was presented to the Oireachtas on 8 October 1958 and placed on sale at the Government Publications Sale Office.
In accordance with the provisions of the National Archives Act, 1986, records from my Department which are more than 30 years old are, subject to section 7 of the Act, transferred to the National Archives, where they are freely available for public inspection. The age of a record is determined by the age of the last substantive entry on it.
Documentation relating to the deliberations of the Fluorine Consultative Council, submissions made to the council, and the fluoridation of public water supplies in general, is contained in the following files transferred from my Department and currently available in the National Archives: file number M102/48A: Fluorine Consultative Council – general correspondence 1957-1961; file number M102/48 Vol. II: dental services, fluoridation of water supplies.
Further relevant documentation is contained in the following files which have been transferred from the Department of the Taoiseach: file number S 16470 B: Fluorine Consultative Council Report to Minister for Health, 1958. December 1965 – March 1968 file number S16470 A, file number S16470 B/61, file number S16470 B/62, file number S16470 B63.
I am informed that the minutes of one meeting exist. The reasons for this are unknown. It may be due to flooding in the basement of the Custom House where records were kept in the 1950's and 1960's. In addition record keeping might not have been as accurate as today. However, the proceedings of each meeting of the Fluorine Consultative Council have been extensively chronicled in a case study on fluoridation policy-making in Ireland published by E.A. Bock in 1983 entitled Executive Initiative Leads Ireland to National Fluoridation which is freely available in the public domain.
