Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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516. To ask the Minister for Health if he plans to make medical cannabis accessible through the medical cannabis access programme to persons with epilepsy and their clinicians; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29741/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Medical Cannabis Access Programme (MCAP) will make it possible for a medical consultant registered with the Irish Medical Council to prescribe a listed cannabis-based treatment for a patient under his or her care for the three conditions covered by the programme, where the patient has failed to respond to standard treatments:

The three specified therapeutic indications covered by the programme:

- Spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis resistant to all standard therapies and interventions.

- Intractable nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy, despite the use of standard anti-emetic regimes.

- Severe, refractory epilepsy that has failed to respond to standard anticonvulsant medications.

The programme is included in the HSE Service Plan for 2021, will operate on a five-year pilot basis and is expected to commence shortly.