Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy and acknowledge his ongoing advocacy work on this area and indeed on the MCAP. The programme was initiated following a ministerially commissioned expert report some time back on cannabis for medical use. Access to cannabis for medical purposes for the treatment of three specified conditions was the recommendation, when all other treatments had failed. The programme commenced in July 2021 and I was very happy to initiate that. It is operated by the HSE. There have been some initial issues with availability of products and I am happy to come back to that. Most issues have now been resolved and one additional product will be available in the coming weeks.

We must recognise there are of course limitations to the programme. Products are not authorised medicines and assurances regarding the safety, quality and effectiveness are not the same as they would be for an authorised medicine. The required structures have been put in place to function as expected for the programme to function as expected. However, it is a clinical decision whether to prescribe these products. Currently 20 patients out of 22 applicants have been accepted onto the programme. In parallel there are 40 patients assessing cannabis for medicinal use through the ministerial licence scheme.

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