In his budget speech, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, allocated €30 million for new drugs to ensure our citizens have access to the best high-tech drugs available globally. I have made the case that Epidiolex should be reimbursed by the HSE numerous times in the House. It is a life-saving cannabis-based drug that can prevent serious seizures in certain cases. I have been working with the parents of a young girl, Lauren McGrath, for the past 18 months to try to get this expensive life-saving medication covered by the HSE. The bureaucratic answers I have received time and again are frustrating in the extreme, while a young girl and her family are going through a horrendous time. Now that €30 million has been made available, I appeal to the Government to ensure sign-off is given to the reimbursement of Epidiolex.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I know that as he raises it, uppermost in his thoughts are Lauren, her family and her health and well-being. However, it is because every case raised in relation to a drug like this is so sensitive and has such an impact on the family raising it and the health of a loved one that the decisions on it are made at a clinical level and by our health experts, as opposed to by any Minister or politician. Recognition of the importance of the supply of new drugs is the reason the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, and the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, made this level of funding available for new drugs overall. I will speak to the Minister for Health and pass on the information the Deputy raised to see if further information can be supplied to the Deputy, Lauren and her family regarding where this process stands.