Medical practitioners will soon be able to prescribe cannabis-based medicinal products to people with multiple sclerosis (MS), the Department of Health has confirmed.

In one of his last measures as Junior Health Minister last week, Alex White signed regulations to enable authorised cannabis-based medicinal products to be legally prescribed by medical practitioners and used by patients.

Deputy White has since been made Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, following a Cabinet reshuffle.

Commenting on the move, Deputy White said that he was ‘glad that many of the matters that had inhibited the progress of this issue have now been resolved'.

"Hopefully, with the legal impediments now removed, a cannabis-based medicinal product will soon be available to ease the symptoms of spasticity for people with MS where other conservative treatments have failed," he said.

Spasticity refers to the muscles when they contract, become stiff or spasm involuntarily.

It is understood that the Health Products Regulatory Authority (formerly the Irish Medicines Board) has already received an application for Sativex, a product that contains extracts from the cannabis plant. This product is already used in a number of other EU countries by MS patients.

MS is a chronic disease of the central nervous system, which causes a gradual degeneration of the nerves. This results in a progressive deterioration in various functions controlled by the nervous system, such as vision, speech and movement.

It is Ireland's most common disabling neurological condition, affecting some 8,000 people here.