Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There is another issue with nursing in general and it was a topic we discussed here a couple of weeks ago. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, has a concern that in the last two years, whether it has been pay and conditions or the Covid pandemic, its members have been absolutely at the front face of all of this. Many fifth and sixth year secondary students who are looking at their career pathways are probably put off going into nursing or the medical sciences because of what they have seen and because of all the negativity that has surrounded pay and conditions in the past two years.

Deputy Gino Kenny was pursuing an interesting line of questioning at the end of his slot and I wish to follow up on that. I too am very interested in the whole debate about medicinal cannabis, which has two sides to it, but particularly its relevance to the sphere of neurology. In the HSE service plan 2021, the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, approved medicinal cannabis with certain criteria which were quite stringent. Will the witnesses comment? Is that over-restrictive or is it working okay from a neurological point of view, from where both of the witnesses are sitting today?