A big step in the battle against water fluoridation yesterday (Monday March 10) was taken, as the overwhelming majority of Cork County Council voted to stop the practice. It means the local authority, the largest to condemn fluoridation of the public water supply in Ireland to date, will now write to Health Minister James Reilly calling on him to take action.

Fluoride Free Towns members in attendance welcomed the decision. It means Cork continues to be very much at the centre of anti-fluoridation movement – Bantry was recently named Ireland's first fluoride-free town.

At a meeting of Fine Gael councillors, Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney announced that a group of international consultants will be appointed by the government to look into water fluoridation. The Mayor Of County Cork, Fine Gael's Noel O'Connor, welcomed the decision during an in-depth debate, while Fianna Fáil councillor Christopher O’Sullivan proposed the motion for "the immediate cessation of fluoridation of the public water supply", commenting that: “It contravenes the EU Convention on Human Rights. Nearly all countries in the EU have stopped it. The US Department of Health says there is zero benefit by ingestion of fluoride.”

Fine Gael's Adrian Healy, Kevin Murphy and John O'Sullivan were in support of the end of fluoridation, as was Fianna Fáil's Pat Murphy. Elsewhere, Labour councillor Noel Costello reserved judgement until the outcome of the HSE's Fluoride And Caring for Children's Teeth study was known.

Ireland is the only member of the European Union, and one of only two countries in the world, with a mandatory water fluoridation policy.