Irene Vorrink

{{Short description|Dutch politician (1918–1996)}}

{{Infobox officeholder

|honorific-prefix = Her Excellency

|name = Irene Vorrink

|image = Vorrink, I. - SFA002019684.jpg

|imagesize = 250px

|caption = Irene Vorrink in 1979

|office = Minister of Health and Environment

|term_start = 11 May 1973

|term_end = 19 December 1977

|primeminister = Joop den Uyl

|predecessor = Louis Stuyt

|successor = Leendert Ginjaar

|office1 = Member of the Senate

|term_start1 = 16 September 1969

|term_end1 = 11 May 1973

|parliamentarygroup1= Labour Party

|birthname = Irene Vorrink

|birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1918|01|07}}

|birth_place = The Hague, Netherlands

|death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|1996|08|21|1918|01|07}}

|death_place = Leek, Netherlands

|nationality = Dutch

|party = Labour Party (from 1946)

|otherparty = Social Democratic
Workers' Party (1936–1946)

|spouse = {{marriage|Joop Zwart|11 December 1946|10 July 1948|reason=divorced}}

|partner = Petrus Hugenholtz
(1954–1996)

|children = Koos Zwart (1947–2014)

|father = Koos Vorrink (1891–1955)

|residence =

|alma_mater = University of Amsterdam
(Bachelor of Laws, Master of Laws)

|occupation = Politician · Civil servant · Jurist · Journalist · Editor · Nonprofit director

|signature =

|website =

}}

Irene Vorrink (7 January 1918 – 21 August 1996) was a Dutch politician of the Labour Party (PvdA).{{cite web|url=http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/vrouwenlexicon/lemmata/data/Vorrink |title=Vorrink, Irene (1918-1996)|publisher=Huygens ING|date=12 November 2013|access-date=20 February 2019|language=nl}}

She was born on 7 January 1918 in The Hague as the daughter of the Dutch socialist leader Koos Vorrink. She studied law until 1943 and held several legal functions, before she became a member of the Senate for the PvdA in 1969.{{cite web|url=http://www.parlement.com/id/vg09llfz19z0/i_irene_vorrink |title=Mr. I. (Irene) Vorrink |language=nl |publisher=Parlement.com |access-date=21 June 2016}}

In 1973 she became Minister of Health in the cabinet Den Uyl. A major issue was the legislation concerning drugs, which she achieved in 1976 together with Minister of Justice, Dries van Agt. The Netherlands has since then employed a distinction between hard and soft drugs.

She also took the leading role in attempting to establish a legal basis for the fluoridation of drinking water. Though fluoridation to prevent tooth decay had been occurring in many areas across the Netherlands for years, the Supreme Court ruled in 1973 that it should be specifically provided for in the Water Supply law. Her bill to do so did not find support in the House of Representatives outside her own party, and was dropped.{{cite thesis|title=De drinkwaterfluoridering : tandartsen, staat en volksgezondheid in Nederland, 1946-1976|date=23 September 2009|pages=301-302, 304-306|author=HA Edeler|language=nl|url=http://dare.uva.nl/document/145529}}

From 1978 until 1979 Vorrink was an alderman in the city of Amsterdam. A 16 MW nearshore wind farm in the IJsselmeer was named after her in 1996.{{cite web |title=Irene Vorrink - Fully Commissioned Offshore Wind Farm - Netherlands {{!}} 4C Offshore |url=https://www.4coffshore.com/windfarms/netherlands/irene-vorrink-netherlands-nl28.html |website=www.4coffshore.com |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20201129010513/https://www.4coffshore.com/windfarms/netherlands/irene-vorrink-netherlands-nl28.html |archive-date=29 November 2020 |url-status=live}}{{cite web |title=Great Expectations |url=https://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/bitstream/10044/1/12649/6/Great%20Expectations%20-%20The%20cost%20of%20offshore%20wind%20in%20UK%20waters.pdf |publisher=UK Energy Research Centre |pages=8–9 |date=September 2010 |quote=In 1996, a second and larger Dutch offshore project came online. The IreneVorrink farm had installed capacity of 16.8MW and carried an investment cost of €1.2 million/MW – almost half the cost of the earlier project. Energycosts showed a similarly impressive reduction down to €0.054/kWh }}