Happy to pay for non-fluoridated water

One of the points of information used for advocating water charges is that Ireland is the only OECD country whose citizens do not pay directly for water use.

This was the same point used for imposition of the household tax.

Ireland is also the only member State in the EU, Europe or Euro-Asia, that artificially fluoridates its water supplies with a dangerous chemical that has been found by EU Scientific Committees and the US National Research Council not to have been tested for human toxicity or environmental safety.

The citizens of Ireland did not ask for their drinking water to be fluoridated, they did not vote for this, neither were they informed of the negative health and environmental implications of such a policy.

So when one asks why people may not be willing to pay for water charges, one must consider how does one compensate households, many thousands of which across the country already pay for bottled water that is non-fluoridated, or for the many thousands more households who have already paid for reverse osmosis kits and filters to be installed in their homes in an attempt to remove such toxins from their contaminated drinking water supply.

As a consumer, I would be more than happy to pay for non-fluoridated safe drinking water which is a basic right provided to every other European citizen, that is, except in Ireland.

Declan Waugh

O’Doherty’s Rd

Bandon

Co Cork