Ryan v Attorney General
| Jurisdiction | Ireland |
| Court | Supreme Court |
| Judgment Date | 31 July 1965 |
| Docket Number | (1962. No. 913 P.) |
| Date | 31 July 1965 |
Validity - Fluoridation of water supplied to public - Whether a violation of personal rights of citizens - Constitution of Ireland, 1937, Art. 40, 3; Arts. 41, 42 - Health (Fluoridation of Water Supplies) Act, 1960, ss. 2 (1), (2), (3), 3, 4 - Fluoridation of Water Supplies (Dublin) Regulations, 1962, Arts. 3, 5, 6, 8.
The Health (Fluoridation of Water Supplies) Act, 1960, by s. 2, imposes an obligation on a health authority (as therein defined) to arrange for the fluoridation of water supplied to the public by sanitary authorities, through pipes, before a date to be fixed by the Minister for Health. The Minister is empowered to make regulations which shall "in particular provide for the specification of the amount of fluorine (which shall not exceed one part by weight of fluorine per million parts of water) which may be added to a water supply." By s. 2 (4) of the Act, prior to making such regulations the Minister is required, inter alia, to cause to be made a survey of the incidence of dental caries in a representative sample of pupils attending full-time day schools in the functional areas of a health authority to which the regulations relate and also to have an analysis of, inter alia, the quantities of fluorine in the water supplied by sanitary authorities through pipes to the public in such functional areas. Pursuant to the Act, the Minister, in 1961, caused a survey of the incidence of dental caries among children in, inter alia, the Dublin area to be carried out by the Medical Research Council and he also caused to be made an analysis of the piped water in this area by the public analyst for the City and County of Dublin. The reports of the survey and analysis were subsequently presented to the Oireachtas. On the 5th May, 1962, the Minister, in exercise of his powers under ss. 2 and 4 of the Act, made the Fluoridation of Water Supplies (Dublin) Regulations, 1962, which required the Dublin Health Authority to arrange for the fluoridation, inter alia, of the piped water supply provided by the Corporation of Dublin. Article 5 of these Regulations provided that "The amount of fluorine which may be added to a water supply in accordance with these regulations shall be such that the water, after the addition of the fluorine, shall contain not more than one part of fluorine per million parts of water, and not less than eight-tenths of a part of fluorine per million parts of water." The plaintiff, the mother of five...
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