Colm Burke (Fine Gael)
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I thank the witnesses for the presentation. As someone who has brought forward Private Member's Bills myself, I am aware that a great deal of work goes into drafting any legislation. I thank them for the time and effort they have put into this, which is very much appreciated. To clarify the current position, I understand that the legislation in force allows the Minister to issue a licence where a certificate has been provided by a doctor to certify that the use of medicinal cannabis would be of benefit in respect of a particular person's medical condition. As such, there is a current licence situation in place and the Minister is talking about placing it on a more structured footing. Would the witnesses be satisfied with a structure set up under current legislation rather than having to go through the whole process of enacting new legislation? What is the difficulty with the existing legislation? This is something new in the sense that a licence has been issued in at least one case, but I am not sure if there are other cases pending.

The public debate has been very much to the effect that if the Bill passes, there will be no difficulty with anyone getting cannabis. There is a misconception. In the opening statement, it was clearly stated that the Bill allows for legally protected access to cannabis-based products by patients with a doctor's recommendation in the form of a certificate. The legislation is providing clearly that cannabis will not be available unless a doctor signs off on it. The perception, on the other hand, is that the Bill will allow people to get access to these products without having had a doctor sign off on that. The witnesses might clarify that because it needs to be made clear in the public domain.