Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Essentially, the Minister is now informing us that as a result of the additional provisions introduced into the legislation - which effectively prevent the use of anonymous donation - those provisions that will facilitate identifying and confirming the parentage of the thousands of children born through assisted reproduction will not be brought into operation for a minimum of one year and possibly longer. That is regrettable. I do not believe there was a necessity to mix these issues up in this particular way. I urge the Minister to reconsider what is being done here. If she insists on going down the road of including in the Bill measures which would more properly be dealt with under legislation relating to the Department of Health and which are clearly recognised as creating a difficulty in the context of assisted reproduction by donation, then the issues to which I refer should be separated from the rules relating to parentage. They are of no relevance at all to the thousands of children already born by means of anonymous donation for whom a court procedure is being provided in order that they might definitively identify who are their parents so that their parentage will not be a matter of dispute in the future. It is regrettable that the issues in question have become interwoven in the way I have outlined. I make these points because it has taken us 30 years to get to the point of enacting legislation in this area. I urge the Minister to examine the architecture of the Bill in order that the parentage of children born to date can at least be readily determined, addressed and dealt with and to ensure that matters will not be left in limbo for a minimum of one year and possibly longer.