23 Samh 2016, 16:26
23 November 2016
The Joint and Select Committees on Health will tomorrow meet to consider matters of policy and legislation. To begin, the Joint Committee will meet with Ms. Lorraine Nolan, Health Products Regulatory Authority, Dr. Colin Doherty, Consultant Neurologist, St James's Hospital and Ms. Vera Twomey, a concerned parent, to examine the merits of the licensing of Medicinal Cannabinoids.
The Select Committee will then consider the Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2016 with Minister of State for Health Promotion, Marcella Corcoran Kennedy in session A before considering the Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2016 with the Minister for Health, Simon Harris TD, in session B.
The Joint meeting will commence at 9.00am in Committee Room 1 tomorrow, Thursday, 24 November 2016. Session A of the Select Committee meeting will begin at 11.45am and Session B will commence at 2.30pm in Committee Room 1.
Committee Chairman, Dr. Michael Harty TD, said “Medicinal cannabinoids, in particular cannabidiol and its therapeutic use, is an issue which has received much attention recently. It is a topic which Minister Harris is seeking advice on and as a Committee, we will now examine the issue in greater detail. We welcome this opportunity to engage with the regulatory body, a preeminent clinician with experience in the area and a concerned parent, before reporting back to the Minister with our findings.”
“As a Select Committee we will then turn our attention to matters of legislation. We will consider Committee stage of the Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill with Minister Corcoran-Kennedy. This is a piece of legislation which, amongst other provisions, allows for payments to be made to the Chair and Board members of the Health Products Regulatory Authority, allows payments under certain redress and similar schemes to be disregarded for means testing for the Fair Deal Nursing Homes Support Scheme, allows the HSE to include non-prescription medicines to be included on the Reimbursement List of drugs and also for the standardised packaging of tobacco.”
“The Committee will then consider the Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill with Minister Harris. This Bill seeks to specify the amount of risk equalisation credits payable to health insurers and to amend stamp duty levies on health insurance policies. The Bill also seeks to specify the circumstances in which an insurer may terminate, or refuse to renew, a health insurance contract.”
Committee proceedings can be viewed live here.
Committee proceedings can also be viewed on the move, through the Houses of the Oireachtas Smartphone App, available for Apple and Android devices.
Ends