Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Lennon refers in his opening statement to the expert reference group having been established. I presume that will produce guidelines about how this is going to be managed from now on with regard to the prescribing and use of medicinal cannabis. What is Mr. Lennon's view on the timescale for when the expert group will be reporting back? Have we any idea of what kind of structure we are talking about? For argument's sake, I have met a number of people who are using medicinal cannabis at the moment, though not through any regulation. I understand that quite a number of people are in that position. If we have an expert group that gives guidelines, when will that expert group report back? I presume there would be a large number of applications initially. Would it be able to deal with those? What kind of structure is it envisaged will be established to deal with those applications?