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

It appears from what the Minister is saying that it is never envisaged that this provision will come into force in its current form. Whatever legislation the Department of Health is working on that might get published in 2016, 2017 or 2018 will provide for the creation of a regulatory authority in the area of assisted reproduction fertility clinics. It again illustrates why this aspect of this legislation should be dealt with by the Department of Health and should not be in this Bill. What is becoming clearer as we are having this discussion is that these provisions in this Bill will create a blockage on reforms relating to identifying the parentage of children born through assisted reproduction for heterosexual couples or gay couples across the country and that there is no certainty as to when any of the provisions in Parts 2 or 3 will come into force.

The reason it is important is because the architecture is making the presentation that this is a function that the Minister for Health is personally going to perform or his officials. When we come to sections 32 and 33, we will see that the Minister is then given an adjudicative function which is, because of its nature, completely inappropriate for a Minister to engage in. The adjudicative function will be around determining what information may or may not be given to a donor-conceived child who has achieved the age of 18 years or the parents of a donor-conceived child.