Professor Conor O'Mahony:

I thank Senator Keogan. It was discussed in the first session this morning that in contrast to the Hague Convention on international adoption there is not any realistic prospect in the short-to-medium term of a similar international agreement in relation to surrogacy due to the fact that there is no international consensus on the issue of surrogacy. There is a wide range of approaches taken in various states around the world. In order to put in place an international legal framework, one needs to secure a consensus of a significant number of states to make that a viable proposition. That is not where that discussion is at present. It is not likely to be there any time soon, as far as I understand it, which means in the meantime we need to think about what we do in our domestic law. Rather than leaving the gaps and voids which we currently have in our law and all of the problems which have been identified that flow from failing to have any laws in place, we need to fill those gaps and decide for ourselves what is the optimum model for Ireland. In the event that an international consensus emerges down the line, of course, that is a process we can engage in and, potentially, re-look at our domestic law as part of that but leaving a void during a period in which it does not seem realistic that there will be an international convention that will bring international consistency to this area is not a viable approach.