I want to thank the Ceann Comhairle for his kind remarks at the start of this session, and I want to thank him and the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for the professional way that they run this Chamber. Indeed, I thank all the Oireachtas Members from all sides and all the people around the country who work and strive to keep Ireland ticking over, from the highest-paid executive to the people on the community employment schemes.

They all deserve credit for the great work they do. Of the men and women who get up in the morning, 99% of them do so with the notion of doing well for everyone.

Yesterday I assisted into the audiovisual room people from all over the country who wanted to highlight the need for tetrahydrocannabinol, THC, and medicinal cannabis to be made available to them to improve their lot and assist them in counteracting the medical conditions they have. They included Noreen O'Neill from Kilgarvan, whose people's farm is separated from mine by the Roughty river and who has a little boy, Michael, who will be two in August, as well as Rosemary Clough, whose son, Gerard Darlington, is in a wheelchair. I asked him how he was and he told me he was not good. Also there were Deirdre Coughlan and her son Stephen O'Mahony and Caroline O'Sullivan and others.

I thank all of the Members and their secretaries who attended the presentation on behalf of men, women and children who asked for the availability of THC and medicinal cannabis to minimise pain and increase their chance to live a normal life. The Minister for Health has stated licences can be granted to allow for prescriptions to be given out but consultants and doctors are reluctant to sign applications to apply for this licence. Only seven have been granted up to now. It is clear that doctors and consultants have a difficulty in applying for the licence because they do not have the backing of the HSE and they are not indemnified by the HSE. They are afraid of liability being attached to them.

I ask for the Government to deal with this. We are all going on holidays and Noreen O'Neill is terribly afraid her little boy will not survive. She drives to Bantry for THC and pays €180 for a bottle that lasts for 12 days. She pays for it out of her carer's allowance. Other countries have dealt with this and legalised it. Why are we lagging behind? It has been going on here for a year and a half or almost two years. Some people have it but it is not available and we need it.

I thank the Deputy for his kind comments at the start. I also thank Opposition Parties in particular who have worked with the Government to bring through a really busy legislative schedule. The House has been able to do things many people felt we would not be able to do in the context of a minority Government situation. I thank Fianna Fáil in particular for its constructive co-operation. We do not always agree, in fact we disagree a lot, but we have worked in a professional manner to get a lot of important legislation through.

This is an important issue and Deputy Gino Kenny has raised it with me also. The position at present is that in order for a cannabis-based medicinal product to come into the country it needs to come in under licence. The Minister of Health has not refused any application that has come from consultants on behalf of their patients to import medicinal cannabis or THC. A total of 13 licences have been issued for the treatment of seven individuals. This will continue.

Separately to the ministerial licence scheme, on foot of the Health Products Regulatory Authority report, Cannabis for Medical Use - A Scientific Review, the Minister announced his intention to establish a medicinal cannabis access programme to facilitate access to cannabis-based products that are not authorised as medicines but are of a standardised quality and meet an acceptable level of quality assurance. What people are asking for and campaigning for, and what some are looking for legislation on, is to be able to bring medicinal cannabis into Ireland without a formal licensing system on which the Minister needs to sign off. The Minister and the Oireachtas committee were concerned about Deputy Gino Kenny's Bill and the committee recommended it should not proceed. As the House subsequently voted that would not be the case, this is an ongoing discussion. The primary issue has to be about the healthcare of patients and the people who are best placed to make those decisions, in terms of the importation of products, are doctors and consultants and not politicians. That remains the position of the Government.

I thank the Tánaiste. I agree with him that consultants and doctors have the knowledge but they are prevented from signing the applications because it looks like they are not indemnified by the HSE and that liability will fall to them. Time is not on the side of many of these patients. I am asking the Government to do something, by statutory instrument or whatever, to allow the consultants and doctors to sign the applications. Doctors prescribe medicine. They will not prescribe an item that remains a Schedule 1 banned substance. It needs to be rescheduled to Schedule 4, in order that doctors would be prescribing a designated medicine. The time and effort required to make a single application, let alone a consultant having to apply for multiple patients, is logistically impossible. In the interim, the Government can bring in all the laws and legislation it wants but it should do something and sign some statutory instrument to allow this medicinal cannabis to be obtained. I am not looking for cannabis for any reason other than medicinal purposes to be administrated through our chemists and doctors.

This has been an ongoing debate for some time. An expert reference group has been established by the Minister for Health and it is drawing up clinical guidance for healthcare professionals treating patients through the access programme. The guidelines will be published shortly on the Department of Health's website, which will be helpful. There are certain products that are clearly medicines and there are other products that may have a medicinal purpose and may be cannabis-based. They are the products the access programme will address. The key issue is that for many children or families looking for better healthcare treatment and who think they can get better results from medicinal cannabis products, there is an avenue through the recommendation of a consultant or a doctor to be able to import those products to Ireland and get it done reasonably quickly. The Minister, Deputy Harris, is committed to this but he wants to make sure, as I said earlier, that key decisions on healthcare provision and support are being made by doctors and not politicians.

Clearly they are afraid.