Madam, - Procrastination in developing proper facilities for the care and treatment of young adults with cystic fibrosis is not the only area in which there has been a lack of appropriate action by the Department of Health and Children.
When I was elected to Seanad Éireann 15 years ago I drew attention to the high incidence of anencephaly and spina bifida in Ireland and the potential to reduce the level by fortifying flour with folic acid.
Anencephaly is a condition incompatible with life outside the womb, and spina bifida are neural tube defects. The tendency to their development in the early weeks of pregnancy, often before the woman realises she is pregnant, can be greatly ameliorated by adding folic acid to the mother's diet for three months period prior to, and for the first three months of, pregnancy.
Over the years I put down adjournment debates on the issue and brought it up in debates. There was no dispute about the value of folic acid but the arguments against action ranged from the claim that it might harm our confectionery trade with the UK and the US to the usual one that another committee had been set up and would report soon.
In my final speech in the Seanad last July I mentioned the problem yet again.
In 2002 the Department of Health asked the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) for advice on folic acid fortification of flour. The FSAI recommended mandatory fortification in 2003.
In 2004 the chief medical officer's annual report, Better Health Through Prevention, recommended yet another consultative process and the Minister set up another committee - the National Committee on Folic Acid Food Fortification. Its report was published on July 18th, 2006 and recommended mandatory fortification of most white, brown and wholemeal bread.
Nothing has happened since except that another committee has been set up. Meanwhile, over the years, flour in both the UK and the US has been fortified.
So, a couple of hundred children are born and die with anencephaly or survive with spina bifida and other grave disabilities. It will be of no comfort to those with cystic fibrosis to read this, but at least they will realise that they have not been singled out for shabby treatment. It's not personal. There are many others suffering. - Yours, etc,
Dr MARY HENRY ,
Burlington Road,
Dublin 4.