177. Deputy Violet-Anne Wynne asked the Minister for Health if he has plans to introduce emergency access pathways for those who already hold medical cards to be reimbursed via the primary care reimbursement scheme for those who have been approved by ministerial licence for access to medicinal cannabis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18590/23] 

Stephen Donnelly, Minister for Health: Irish-registered medical practitioners may apply to the Minister for Health for a licence to access cannabis for medical use for a named patient under their care. Applications for this Ministerial licence can only be accepted from: 

• An individual patient’s medical consultant, where evidence of an established doctor-patient relationship exists, or 

• From the individual patient’s GP where the application is also accompanied by a written endorsement for the cannabis treatment from the patient’s medical consultant. 

The Medical Cannabis Access Programme (MCAP) allows medical consultants to prescribe specified cannabis-based products for patients with certain medical conditions who have exhausted all other available medical treatment options. Those medical conditions are: 

• Spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis 

• Intractable nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy 

• Severe, refractory (treatment-resistant) epilepsy 

Patients treated under Ministerial licence may have one of these conditions or they may have a different condition. The HSE will only reimburse eligible patients who access a cannabis product under the Ministerial licensing route if prescribed for one of the three medical conditions included in the MCAP.