Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That was not in relation to drug treatment. What we are trying to do here is ensure that medical practitioners - consultant doctors - can work with families, like the family mentioned by Deputy Barry, to ensure that children are getting appropriate treatment and that we can import where appropriate treatments that are not available in Ireland. The Minister has shown more than willingness to facilitate the licensing for that on application. I am not aware of a single application that has come from a consultant to import medicinal cannabis that has been refused. There is a process here. A number of Deputies have repeatedly raised the issue to try to ensure that we have a streamlined system that works with families. That means mothers do not have to travel abroad, to Amsterdam, Barcelona or elsewhere to bring back products, and that we can have a system where in certain circumstances children can access drugs that need to be imported from abroad. However, that does need to be in the context of the supervision and recommendation of a consultant doctor, who is trained to make medical decisions in the interests of patients.

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