Last Saturday morning Vera Twomey and her family packed their bags, left their home in Aghabullogue, County Cork and travelled to the Netherlands where they will remain not for days or weeks but for months, at least. They have done this to obtain medicine for their sick child. They have effectively been forced out of the country by Government policy. Shame on the Government. Last December, Deputy Gino Kenny's Cannabis for Medicinal Use Regulation Bill 2016 passed First and Second Stages. Now, seven months later and mere weeks from the summer recess, it has still not been taken on Committee Stage. Why is that? The health committee has stated it is waiting for legal advice. When will it receive that written legal advice and when will it meet to discuss amendments?

On the case mentioned by the Deputy, the Minister for Health has met the family on numerous occasions. He has made it clear that a course of treatment can be prescribed where a consultant endorses that approach. If a consultant endorses that approach and recommends it in a particular case, the treatment can be prescribed and made available. However, the Minister does not make that decision. It is a clinical decision and if it is not made in a particular case, his hands are tied. In the meantime, the work of Dr. Máirín Ryan from the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, is ongoing. She is chairperson of the expert group that is developing the operational, clinical and practice guidelines for the access programme for medicinal cannabis in Ireland. Officials are working on the legislation.