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

I do not wish to prolong this unnecessarily, but if there is a range of factors to be considered, they should be detailed in the legislation. If the decision is based on "well-being", there is a need to clarify what "sufficient reasons" means or can the Minister simply say that, based on his or her perception of the well-being of the donor or the well-being of the child, he or she will or will not make this decision? I do not think it is appropriate that a mechanism is created which is designed to protect safety or designed to protect "well-being", whatever that means, where if a decision is made not to do something, the party affected by that can appeal, but where a decision is made to do something, the party affected by that cannot appeal.

Can I put it in a political context? Let us assume for a moment, as the Minister said, the bias would be to make information available, but when it comes to making a decision, a Minister cannot come to it with bias. He or she must make an objective decision based on the information furnished to him or her. Of course, one of the difficulties is how the information furnished is validated because this does not involve any form of a hearing process. It seems to be based on some form of written submission. That is a particular difficulty. If it is the type of procedure that is here envisaged - not to be obtuse about it - and a 20 or 25 year old wants information or the donor does not want information provided, the Minister is the person making the decision. It is not an independent body or authority. Does the donor or the 25 year old conceived with the assistance of donor-assisted reproduction mechanisms start knocking on the doors of the constituency clinics of individual Deputies asking them to urge the Minister to make a particular decision or not? If we are going to have this process, it should not be a ministerial process. It should be a separate authority. I do not believe that it should be brought into operation with a Minister dealing with it until the independent authority is dealing with it.