Results 14,641-14,660 of 26,902 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 1. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on justice reform last met. [15435/17]

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 5. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on justice reform will next meet. [16464/17]

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I am amazed the last meeting took place on 7 March given everything that is happening. There is an unprecedented storm going on in terms of the behaviour of An Garda Síochána, the scandals around the breath tests, wrongful convictions and the questions over the Commissioner, yet the Cabinet committee did not meet since 7 March. It is absolutely extraordinary. Even more...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Cannabis for Medicinal Use Regulation Bill 2016: Discussion (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I will ask Deputy Kenny, as the politico here, to respond to this question. Does he believe there has been an attempt to throw mud in the eyes of the members of the public on the real import and purpose of this Bill? I believe there has, but I am interested to hear Deputy Kenny's response. I would describe Deputy O'Connell's intervention as nothing short of a hatchet job and a gross...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Cannabis for Medicinal Use Regulation Bill 2016: Discussion (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Yes, she made these allegations and then left, which is telling in and of itself.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Cannabis for Medicinal Use Regulation Bill 2016: Discussion (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: In fairness, she was at the committee-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Cannabis for Medicinal Use Regulation Bill 2016: Discussion (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Senator Mullen just made comments about people's political background.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Cannabis for Medicinal Use Regulation Bill 2016: Discussion (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I am just asking Deputy Kenny whether he believes the Bill has been misrepresented because I believe it has. It is entirely legitimate for me to comment on something that happened at this committee meeting. If the person who made those comments has left, that is her problem. It is entirely legitimate to respond to issues that were discussed as part of this committee meeting.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Cannabis for Medicinal Use Regulation Bill 2016: Discussion (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Yes, absolutely, but a suggestion was made that the Bill was immoral in its import, which is an extraordinary statement to make. What is Deputy Kenny's view of comments to the effect that the Bill is immoral and so on? As I understand the Bill, and I have read it, it explicitly states that it will be an offence for people to use cannabis-based products other than on the grounds set out in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Cannabis for Medicinal Use Regulation Bill 2016: Discussion (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I stopped my contribution because I knew Dr. O'Grady was in a rush. It has been stated that there is evidence that where medicinal cannabis is made available, it has an impact on the use of other drugs and there is some evidence that use of benzodiazepines, opiates and so on has reduced where that is the case. Do the companies that manufacture those products feel threatened by medicinal...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Cannabis for Medicinal Use Regulation Bill 2016: Discussion (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: For the purpose of clarity, I suppose, for anybody looking in on this debate, the herbal product is available in other jurisdictions and approved and authorised and can be made available through prescription in other jurisdictions. Maybe the speakers could confirm that. It is my understanding that it is.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Cannabis for Medicinal Use Regulation Bill 2016: Discussion (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: This Bill seeks to allow for that. I am not just referring to the limited number of herbal products - I believe it is one - that are available in Ireland. It has components of cannabis but is not the entire product. I wish to ask Professor Finn about something. As someone who is involved in the pain area via an organisation named-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Cannabis for Medicinal Use Regulation Bill 2016: Discussion (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It is not Professor Finn's job to be political, but is he surprised that pain has been left out of the recommendation of the Health Products Regulatory Authority, HPRA, or that it suggested that there was not much evidence of this product's efficacy when Professor Michael Barnes says the opposite? Professor Barnes seems to suggest that the highest level of evidence concerns pain and that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Cannabis for Medicinal Use Regulation Bill 2016: Discussion (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: They do not want it for its psychoactive properties.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Cannabis for Medicinal Use Regulation Bill 2016: Discussion (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: This relates to research and not to use. The specific sections the Chairman has mentioned state that if there is a research institute, that research institute would look into both the medicinal and recreational use and would look at research being done in both of those areas in other countries. It is important to say that. We could have a debate on Committee Stage as to whether the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Cannabis for Medicinal Use Regulation Bill 2016: Discussion (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It is very simple. Without a certificate from a doctor giving the right to use medicinal cannabis, a person will be committing an offence. That is what the Bill stipulates. Nothing has changed.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Cannabis for Medicinal Use Regulation Bill 2016: Discussion (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It is regardless of what form that medicinal cannabis takes. Possession of the vape form, tablet form or herbal form will be an offence without possession of a certificate provided by a doctor recommending the use of that product for that specific person.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Cannabis for Medicinal Use Regulation Bill 2016: Discussion (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: If I am with Deputy Durkan and I do not have the certificate and I am using his medicinal cannabis for which he has a certificate, I will be guilty of an offence, but he will not because he has a certificate.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Cannabis for Medicinal Use Regulation Bill 2016: Discussion (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Pharmacies throughout the country dispense methadone, which is a very dangerous drug. It is highly illegal for anybody to have possession of methadone that is not prescribed and given out under controlled conditions by pharmacies. Is it enforced well? How is it enforced? We know there is leakage with methadone that gets sold on in the black market and so on. That could be just as easily...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Cannabis for Medicinal Use Regulation Bill 2016: Discussion (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: That product may be medicinal cannabis.