Mr. Shaun Flanagan:

On the numbers, we need to separate the ministerial licence programme, which my Department colleagues have explained. That is where the number of 67 comes from. The medical cannabis access programme, MCAP, will be a different programme. They will be the products on the Schedule. I presume, from the perspective of the companies, that when they did the economics it just was not commercially viable in a small market for them, or they decided it was not a priority. As I understand it, on occasion companies say that one of the reasons there can be delays in supply is that they have manufacturing pipelines and they must get sufficient quantities available to supply different markets, but I am open to correction on this. It could be something as simple as that. Perhaps they were just not in a position to have sufficient stock. The Department would not be party to this as we would not be in the boardrooms of those companies.