John Gormley
Ceist:89 Mr. Gormley asked the Minister for Health and Children the amount the fluoride forum has cost to date; the projected costs for the forum; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14873/01]
Written Answers. - Fluoride Forum.
I established the Forum on Fluoridation in May 2000. The forum is comprised largely of persons with expert knowledge spanning the areas of public health, dental health, food safety, environmental protection, ethics, water quality, health promotion and representatives from the consumer and environmental areas.
The terms of reference of the forum are as follows: to review the fluoridation of public piped water supplies and the programme of research being undertaken on behalf of health boards in the area; to report to the Minister.
The forum has invited submissions from the public.
The forum's interim report, which is available on its web site, http://www.fluoridationforum.ie, gives details of the forum's progress to the end of 2000. A further progress report is currently in the final stages of preparation by the forum's rapporteur and will be available on the aforementioned web site shortly. The forum will present its recommendations to me at the end of October 2001.
The chairman of the forum is Professor Pat Fottrell, former President of the National University of Ireland, Galway, who has extensive relevant knowledge and experience but who is not engaged in any way with the practice of fluoridation.
The budget for the Forum on Fluoridation for the year 2001 is £220,000. It has not been possible to calculate expenditure from that budget to date in the time allowed but that information will be forwarded to the Deputy as soon as it has been compiled by the forum secretariat.