Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On the case mentioned by the Deputy, the Minister for Health has met the family on numerous occasions. He has made it clear that a course of treatment can be prescribed where a consultant endorses that approach. If a consultant endorses that approach and recommends it in a particular case, the treatment can be prescribed and made available. However, the Minister does not make that decision. It is a clinical decision and if it is not made in a particular case, his hands are tied. In the meantime, the work of Dr. Máirín Ryan from the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, is ongoing. She is chairperson of the expert group that is developing the operational, clinical and practice guidelines for the access programme for medicinal cannabis in Ireland. Officials are working on the legislation.

See this speech in context