Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I want to respond to what Deputy Kate O'Connell has just said. I am a member of the Joint Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution alongside the Deputy. We are dealing with a situation where women, including me and others in the House, are being exiled from the country to obtain a medical procedure. Now we are looking at a Bill that tries to deal with a situation where children are being exiled from the country to obtain certain medicines. Anyone's heart would have been gladdened by seeing Ava Barry on Facebook and the difference made to her life by being able to access medicinal cannabis while residing in Holland. I share the concerns everybody here has expressed for her mother, Vera Twomey, who has been totally stressed out in the battle she has had to fight with the State to have the right thing done by her daughter.

It is completely disingenuous for Deputy Kate O'Connell and others to say they cannot ignore the volume of evidence brought before them because they are ignoring another volume of evidence. They refused to have Professor Barnes come before the Joint Committee on Health. They also refused to call the Irish Medical Organisation, IMO, which passed a motion at its conference recently calling for doctors to be allowed to prescribe medicinal cannabis. These Deputies have refused to listen to a body of evidence that is stronger than that of the HPRA. They also say we do not have experience of prescribing cannabis here. We do not have experience of performing abortions here either, but we are fighting to be able to provide for them. This is a disingenuous position for a professional such as Deputy Kate O'Connell and other medical professionals in this House to take.

International experience shows that Ireland is out of step with other countries in Europe. As others said, in Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Poland, Greece and the Baltic countries medicinal cannabis is legal. Are we such a great, plucky little race that we can stand alone and say it is not going to happen here, just as we stand alone and say there will be no access to abortion in this country? Can we not be on the right side of history, science and justice and listen to what is being said?

I wish to make a conciliatory remark to the parties that have indicated that they are generally supportive. We are willing to consider changing the Bill in a big way. I urge them to come along to hear the evidence of Professor Mike Barnes in the audiovisual room next Tuesday at 5.30 p.m.

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