Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I, too, thank Professor O'Mahony. I, too, was late coming in this morning and I think all of us were a little bit disheartened. What really concerned me was when Professor O’Mahony said there had been no contact with him from the Department. For me, that is a real concern. Ireland is the third highest country per capitato avail of international surrogacy. We have to legislate, but our framework, as Professor O’Mahony said, is non-existent. As far as we heard this morning and as we know now, no other EU country has legislation on this. They seem to be operating under family law. I understand from this morning that there is a policy paper that is planned to be in process at the end of the year.

My concern is this committee that has been formed is meant to last three months. We were told when we came to this committee that we were looking at three months. Surrogacy now falls under different Departments, from justice to children to health, and we could even be looking at social welfare. What would Professor O’Mahony like for us to achieve here? I have been meeting with surrogacy families. I know what is happening in the community. Again, I can only say it is such a sensitive area. I would give my full support to this, because I believe it has to happen urgently. We cannot be going on and on and on. As Professor O’Mahony said, we need to make sure the framework is correct because it has to be, but we also need to make sure we have a solution here. We have to look at whatever areas we need to look at. What would Professor O’Mahony like to see us achieve? What would be his main issue for us so that we can as a committee say, “This is what Professor O’Mahony is saying to us and this is what we need to deliver”? As I said, we are being told this is only a three-month committee and I just do not think at this stage that it is doable. It is too sensitive. We have to get this right. Timing is a crucial issue.