Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Dr. Shannon here today and thank him for the report, which is so comprehensive. I compliment him on the amount of work that he has put into it. I agree with everything in it. I also agree totally with what Deputy Conway said about alcohol. In 95% of cases it is the root cause of all the problems. I will not go into it because Deputy Conway has aired it pretty well.

We do not have any legislation on surrogacy but every day people go out of the country for this service and we need to implement legislation soon. Dr. Shannon stated that 13% of marriages across the European Union are bi-national and child custody battles between an Irish parent and one from another country, be it in Europe or elsewhere, come to our attention regularly. This is becoming a major issue. The Hague Convention comes into play quite often but people say it does not apply, decisions are overturned. A great deal of money, time and effort is wasted but the child is at the centre of all this.

There is no legislative guidance on the manner in which such applications are to be determined, so that is something on which we need legislation. I thank Dr. Shannon for the report, which makes fascinating reading.