Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is no problem. I apologise that I had to pop off for a little while. I had to attend a meeting of the Joint Committee on Disability Matters at the same time so I missed some of this discussion.

It is so useful to have representatives of all the relevant Departments here. That there are so many relevant Departments goes to show how complex this area is. This is why we all need to work at a cross-party level and departmentally to find a resolution. My question, which I did not get around to asking earlier, concerns the jurisdiction issues. Much was said about certain countries where practices may be more regulated than in others. I am concerned that if we start to treat different countries differently, we will be doing a disservice to children born through surrogacy in a country where surrogacy is unregulated. How do we square the circle? We need to ensure all Irish citizens born through surrogacy have the same legal standing in Ireland. The question is probably pertinent to the Department of Justice.