Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I wish to ask the Taoiseach again about the Cannabis for Medicinal Use Regulation Bill 2016, whether it was discussed at the health committee meeting and the decision of the Government and its representatives on the Joint Committee on Health to support stopping the Bill even though it had passed Second Stage. As a doctor, how can the Taoiseach stand over a report that is essentially determined by a report from the Health Products Regulatory Authority, HPRA, which does not comprise doctors or experts in the field of medicinal cannabis, which is 77% funded through fees from the pharmaceutical industry and which led the committee to make a statement to the effect that, "there is still a shortage of peer-reviewed evidence for the efficacy and safety of cannabinoid treatment for many conditions" while, at the same time, refusing even to take testimony from, for example, Professor Mike Barnes, honorary professor of neurological rehabilitation at Newcastle University, who wrote the authoritative report on medicinal cannabis for the British Parliament and said the exact opposite to what our committee said? According to Professor Barnes, while it is certainly true that more peer-reviewed work is always needed, it is untrue to imply that current evidence is inadequate, particularly given that there is considerable evidence of efficacy in the context of chronic pain and spasticity - both indications having licences in different jurisdictions - as well as nausea, vomiting, anxiety and childhood epilepsy.

That is just one example - I could quote more but I do not have time - of where the actual medical experts have given evidence, although ignored by the health committee, directly counter to the recommendations essentially inspired by the HPRA. I mentioned the IMO to the Taoiseach last week and he dismissed it as a trade union. It is a trade union of doctors compared with members of the HPRA, who are not doctors or experts. Will the Taoiseach continue to allow Fine Gael or, for that matter, Deputy Micheál Martin and Fianna Fáil, to block legislation which is backed up by medical and scientific evidence on medicinal cannabis?

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