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

Most people listening to this discussion will not understand this. Given that 16 licences have been granted to 16 individuals in the State, one would think the State would intervene to provide a distribution company to go to Holland and bring the product to those 16 individuals' pharmacies. That would be the logical thing to do. Currently, the cost of reimbursing the travel and the inconvenience are very stressful for the families. The substantive issue is the cannabis access programme which has been mooted for the last two years but is still not up and running. Individuals continue to have to go their specialists who will say in the majority of cases that they do not know enough about the product and situation to prescribe it. It is an unsustainable situation. The access programme must be implemented so that people do not have to leave the jurisdiction but can get the medication in their local pharmacies while being reimbursed by the HSE.

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