Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

In 2014, the then Minister of State at the Department of Health, former Deputy Alex White, signed into regulation the use of Sativex, a cannabis-based medicine for patients with multiple sclerosis, MS. The drug is not yet available on prescription or under the drug purchase scheme. Nobody who needs Sativex in Ireland can get it. If the Taoiseach has the time, and I will question him next week in this regard, he should look at a report broadcast by RTÉ in December on Paddy Doyle, an author who has MS and cannot get a prescription for Sativex.

This issue also throws into question the cannabis action programme for which the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, has set out guidelines. The Minister has referred to the guidelines on numerous occasions in the House but there are no guidelines and no programme. When will the guidelines be published? People are waiting for the programme to get up and running.

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