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Arrangement by health authorities for the fluoridation of water.
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2.—(1) Subject to and in accordance with this Act and regulations made under subsection (3) of this section, a health authority shall arrange for the fluoridation of water supplied to the public by sanitary authorities through pipes.
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(2) The Minister may, in relation to a particular health authority, fix a date before which they shall, in relation to a particular public water supply, arrange for the fluoridation of water derived therefrom.
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(3) (a) The Minister may make regulations as to the manner in which and the extent to which health authorities shall perform their functions under this Act, and such regulations 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.
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(b) Regulations made under this subsection may relate to one or more health authorities and different regulations may be made in relation to different health authorities.
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(4) Before making regulations under this section, the Minister shall—
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(a) cause to be made—
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(i) a survey of the incidence of dental caries in a representative sample of pupils attending full-time day schools in the functional area or functional areas of the health authority or health authorities to whom the regulations relate, and
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(ii) an analysis or series of analyses of the quantities of fluorine and such other constituents as the Minister may determine in the water supplied by sanitary authorities through pipes to the public in the functional area or functional areas of the health authority or health authorities to whom the regulations relate, and
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(b) cause to be presented to each House of the Oireachtas a report on the survey and analysis or analyses so made,
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and such report, in relation to the survey, shall include particulars of the procedure adopted in making it and the numbers, classified by age and otherwise, of the pupils to whom it relates but shall not include any information in respect of any identifiable pupil.
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(5) Any information in relation to dental caries in individuals which is obtained in the course of a survey under subsection (4) of this section shall be treated in a confidential manner.
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(6) Nothing in subsection (4) of this section shall be construed as imposing an obligation on any person to submit himself or any person for whom he is responsible to examination or as requiring the controlling authority of any school to afford facilities for the making of a survey under that subsection, and accordingly where, in the case of any such survey, information regarding the pupils attending one or more of the full-time day schools in the area or areas concerned is for any reason not available, the survey shall be made by reference to the pupils attending the other full-time day schools in the area or areas.
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