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

I want to follow up on Deputy Micheál Martin's question. It is two and a half years since the report came out. It was commissioned by the HPRA. Its main recommendation was that the cannabis access programme be set up. Since then, there has been no access programme. In the past two and half years, 16 licences have been granted to 16 individuals in the State. Of those 16 licences, three have involved financial reimbursement. There are, therefore, 13 other families who have not been reimbursed. A family contacted me over the past few weeks. Mary and Joe Stevens, who live in Waterford, were granted a licence last December for their daughter, Cassandra, and they were given notification yesterday by the HSE that they would not be reimbursed. The cost is €9,000 per year. The family still has to go to another jurisdiction, namely, Holland, to get the medication. As of August, however, the family will not be able to afford the medication for their daughter. According to their words and the clinical notes, we have learned that the product has made a dramatic difference to the daughter's life.

This is so important. I have been banging this drum for the past three years. I am so frustrated. My frustration does not compare with the frustration of the families. Is there a commencement date for the cannabis access programme?

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