FG's quango critique - dental quangos, fluoridation & PfG!

[soubresauts]

Fine Gael has a recent report out about the proliferation of quangos and how so much money could be saved by abolishing or amalgamating them. See here, and report here.

I've taken an interest in government policy on dental health, particularly because of the ongoing fluoridation scandal. (The whole population is being dosed with unmeasured amounts of fluoride; it is unscientific and unjust, and is contrary to fundamental medical principles.)

So I looked at the FG report in relation to the dental quangos...

The report lists the following bodies:

* Irish Expert Body on Fluorides and Health (est. 2004)
All Expert Body (EB) board members are Ministerial nominees. Effectively, the EB, like fluoridation itself, is run by the dentist academics and the other members are ciphers who rubber-stamp the dentists' decisions. The EB, spending enormous amounts of public money, retains the services of PR giant Weber Shandwick, who specialize in preserving reputations. Not one of the EB members is an expert on fluoride. All documents produced by the EB, and there are many, are gobbledygook, and gobbledygook for a reason -- to cover up the scandal. We don't have recent budget figures for the EB, but they must be big money.

* Dental Council
The FG report says it was established in 2001. However, the Dental Council's website says it "was established under the provisions of the Dentists Act 1985. Its general concern is to promote high standards of professional education and professional conduct among dentists." One of the Ministerial appointees is arch-fluoridator Dr Joe Mullen.

* Postgraduate Medical and Dental Board (est. 1978)
See below.

* Dublin Dental Hospital Board (est. 1963)
Part of the TCD Dental School. The two dental schools are the nerve-centres of Irish fluoridation, and every Irish dental student is miseducated with unscientific pro-fluoride propaganda. Heavily subsidized of course by the taxpayer, aka forced fluoride-drinker.

* Cork University Dental School and Hospital (controlled by UCC/HSE)


The Postgraduate Medical and Dental Board (PGMDB.ie) is an interesting case. From 1998 to 2006, the budget increased from 3,032,000 Euro to 8,744,000 Euro (yes, nearly nine million), and the staffing increased from 13 to 21. The three doyens of Irish fluoridation, Clarkson, O'Mullane and Whelton, are in charge of career guidance for dental public health. Their guidance can be summarized in six words: "Keep fluoridation going at all costs."

There is clear overlap between the Dental Council and the dental section of the PGMDB. One of them should be abolished.

FG doesn't say specifically that any of the above should be abolished or whittled down, but it looks like they would give serious consideration to the idea. You can see reasons for the existence of the PGMDB, but that budget is huge. Since the career guidance they give to public health dentists comes from Clarkson, O'Mullane and Whelton, it's obvious we'd all be better off without that section at least.

This is obviously a useful effort by FG, but in relation to fluoridation it is disappointing. Having called for an end to fluoridation as far back as 2001, FG should have the gumption and the guts to demand that the Expert Body (at least) be abolished immediately. And they ought to be smart enough to see, and enumerate, the enormous financial savings that can be made by stopping fluoridation.

One related organization not included in the FG report is the Dental Health Foundation, which is 99% funded by Mary Harney's department. The DHF has some sort of charity status; does that exclude it from the quango critique? In any case, it should be abolished forthwith, because it is little more than a fluoride-promotion outfit whose main activity is providing secretarial services for the aforementioned Expert Body on Fluorides & Health.

To summarize:
* Fluoridation is a scandalous waste of public money as well as the health of the nation.
* This so-called public health measure, based on scientific fraud, should be stopped immediately.
* The Expert Body and the Dental Health Foundation should be abolished, while being investigated for scientific misconduct.
* The other dental quangos should be rationalized.

That's my little run-through of the dental quangos, a very small part of the whole quango system.

Imagine the improvements and savings to be made by going through all the quangos with a cleaning brush... Fine Gael have made a start. Will they see it through?


P.S. The mother of all quangos, the HSE, was foolishly dragged into the fluoridation scandal by the Programme for Government agreed by FF and the Greens last June. Foolishly because the HSE, with its 100,000 employees, has no one who's an expert on fluoride.

The PfG, as voted on by the Greens in the Mansion House on June 13th, states:

* Mandate the HSE to publish a comprehensive report on the fluoridation of water.

That might seem clear enough (though it's totally unworkable)... except that the other version of the Programme for Government says, instead, something quite different:

* Arising from the work of the Expert Body on Fluorides and Health and the motion agreed unanimously by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health & Children, the HSE will carry out a national study of total fluoride intake in the population and we will bring its conclusions to Government.

What other version? you ask. Well, the first version is from the document released by the Green Party on June 14th, immediately after they voted to go into coalition on the basis of that document.

The second version is from the document made available at some later date, which is now, apparently, the official Programme for Government.

(By the way, I cannot find any official record of "the motion agreed unanimously by the Joint Oireachtas Committee". I've combed through the minutes of the Committee...)

There are other differences between the two versions of the PfG, but... who's going to document those differences? Who's going to do anything?

Alarming, isn't it?


P.P.S. Has anyone noticed how useless the Fianna Fáil website is? There are no policies there, nothing to link to, except the FFers promoting themselves. [Oh, I get it now; it's deliberate.]

[Respvblica]

Fine Gael has a recent report out about the proliferation of quangos and how so much money could be saved by abolishing or amalgamating them. See here, and report here.

I've taken an interest in government policy on dental health, particularly because of the ongoing fluoridation scandal. (The whole population is being dosed with unmeasured amounts of fluoride; it is unscientific and unjust, and is contrary to fundamental medical principles.)

So I looked at the FG report in relation to the dental quangos...

The report lists the following bodies:

* Irish Expert Body on Fluorides and Health (est. 2004)
All Expert Body (EB) board members are Ministerial nominees. Effectively, the EB, like fluoridation itself, is run by the dentist academics and the other members are ciphers who rubber-stamp the dentists' decisions. The EB, spending enormous amounts of public money, retains the services of PR giant Weber Shandwick, who specialize in preserving reputations. Not one of the EB members is an expert on fluoride. All documents produced by the EB, and there are many, are gobbledygook, and gobbledygook for a reason -- to cover up the scandal. We don't have recent budget figures for the EB, but they must be big money.

* Dental Council
The FG report says it was established in 2001. However, the Dental Council's website says it "was established under the provisions of the Dentists Act 1985. Its general concern is to promote high standards of professional education and professional conduct among dentists." One of the Ministerial appointees is arch-fluoridator Dr Joe Mullen.

* Postgraduate Medical and Dental Board (est. 1978)
See below.

* Dublin Dental Hospital Board (est. 1963)
Part of the TCD Dental School. The two dental schools are the nerve-centres of Irish fluoridation, and every Irish dental student is miseducated with unscientific pro-fluoride propaganda. Heavily subsidized of course by the taxpayer, aka forced fluoride-drinker.

* Cork University Dental School and Hospital (controlled by UCC/HSE)

The Postgraduate Medical and Dental Board (PGMDB.ie) is an interesting case. From 1998 to 2006, the budget increased from 3,032,000 Euro to 8,744,000 Euro (yes, nearly nine million), and the staffing increased from 13 to 21. The three doyens of Irish fluoridation, Clarkson, O'Mullane and Whelton, are in charge of career guidance for dental public health. Their guidance can be summarized in six words: "Keep fluoridation going at all costs."

There is clear overlap between the Dental Council and the dental section of the PGMDB. One of them should be abolished.

FG doesn't say specifically that any of the above should be abolished or whittled down, but it looks like they would give serious consideration to the idea. You can see reasons for the existence of the PGMDB, but that budget is huge. Since the career guidance they give to public health dentists comes from Clarkson, O'Mullane and Whelton, it's obvious we'd all be better off without that section at least.

This is obviously a useful effort by FG, but in relation to fluoridation it is disappointing. Having called for an end to fluoridation as far back as 2001, FG should have the gumption and the guts to demand that the Expert Body (at least) be abolished immediately. And they ought to be smart enough to see, and enumerate, the enormous financial savings that can be made by stopping fluoridation.

One related organization not included in the FG report is the Dental Health Foundation, which is 99% funded by Mary Harney's department. The DHF has some sort of charity status; does that exclude it from the quango critique? In any case, it should be abolished forthwith, because it is little more than a fluoride-promotion outfit whose main activity is providing secretarial services for the aforementioned Expert Body on Fluorides & Health.

To summarize:
* Fluoridation is a scandalous waste of public money as well as the health of the nation.
* This so-called public health measure, based on scientific fraud, should be stopped immediately.
* The Expert Body and the Dental Health Foundation should be abolished, while being investigated for scientific misconduct.
* The other dental quangos should be rationalized.

That's my little run-through of the dental quangos, a very small part of the whole quango system.

Imagine the improvements and savings to be made by going through all the quangos with a cleaning brush... Fine Gael have made a start. Will they see it through?


P.S. The mother of all quangos, the HSE, was foolishly dragged into the fluoridation scandal by the Programme for Government agreed by FF and the Greens last June. Foolishly because the HSE, with its 100,000 employees, has no one who's an expert on fluoride.

The PfG, as voted on by the Greens in the Mansion House on June 13th, states:

* Mandate the HSE to publish a comprehensive report on the fluoridation of water.

That might seem clear enough (though it's totally unworkable)... except that the other version of the Programme for Government says, instead, something quite different:

* Arising from the work of the Expert Body on Fluorides and Health and the motion agreed unanimously by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health & Children, the HSE will carry out a national study of total fluoride intake in the population and we will bring its conclusions to Government.

What other version? you ask. Well, the first version is from the document released by the Green Party on June 14th, immediately after they voted to go into coalition on the basis of that document.

The second version is from the document made available at some later date, which is now, apparently, the official Programme for Government.

(By the way, I cannot find any official record of "the motion agreed unanimously by the Joint Oireachtas Committee". I've combed through the minutes of the Committee...)

There are other differences between the two versions of the PfG, but... who's going to document those differences? Who's going to do anything?

Alarming, isn't it?


P.P.S. Has anyone noticed how useless the Fianna Fáil website is? There are no policies there, nothing to link to, except the FFers promoting themselves. [Oh, I get it now; it's deliberate.]

Good post!
I suppose it just goes to highlight the truth of the corruption and sorry state our country is in right now. We're looking at a few years of heavy recession and pain, but the "boys" have milked the system for what its worth and have made their money.

One of the reasons I think that these qaungos proliferate so much is because the governments that start them have lost all sense of accountability. For them democracy is just a horse race that occurs every 5 years and a republic is simply "not a monarchy".
Traitors and parasites, the lot of them.