Health Minister Simon Harris has said he believes growing medicinal marijuana "could be an opportunity for Irish farmers in due course".

It’s nearly two years since Leo Varadkar’s government promised to roll out a medicinal cannabis access programme to help alleviate chronic pain or prevent seizures.

But critics say it’s a damning indictment of this government’s incompetence that this vital scheme has yet to be established.

The only legal avenue available for those desperately in need of medicinal marijuana is to ask the Health Minister for a special licence.

And it’s obviously a very restrictive system too because only around dozen patients have accessed the drug via this route on 23 occasions, according to the figures the Taoiseach gave in the Dail recently.

It means the likes of Vera Twomey is still being forced to travel overseas every three months to secure a prescription for the CBD and THC oils to help prevent her eight-year-old daughter Ava Barry, who suffers from a severe form of epilepsy, having seizures.

But Health Minister Simon Harris now says that making the drug widely available in 2019 is a "major priority" for him in 2019.

In a new interview to be screen later this week on RTE's Ear to the Ground, Minister Harris said: “This is not about the recreational use and people smoking joints.

"This is about using in a controlled way, in a monitored way, with the support of your clinician, a product that could ease your pain and suffering after you’ve tried all the conventional treatments.

“This is a major priority for me and I really want to see this happen in 2019.”

Minister Harris told the RTE show he would be open to Irish farmers growing the drug.

“I think I could be an opportunity for Irish farmers in due course," he stated.

“Does it make sense to grow your own in Ireland rather than be dependent on importing a product? I think quite frankly it does.”

However, the Health Minister said the Government would be looking to import the product in the short-term.

“You can’t obviously do that overnight," he said. “There is quite a lead in time and there are patients who need this product as soon as possible.

“What we’re likely to do in the first course of action is to try and secure a product.

“Then in the medium terms talking about growing our own and securing our own supply in Ireland is the sensible thing to do.”

Ear to the Ground will be shown on RTE One on Thursday 13 December at 8.30pm.