Ms Ciara Merrigan:

I am chairperson of Irish Families Through Surrogacy, which was established in October 2020. Our committee consists of 11 members - nine mothers and two fathers. Collectively, we are the parents of 17 children through surrogacy and we represent hundreds of families created through surrogacy who are living in every county across Ireland. We are campaigning for our children and future children born through surrogacy to have the protection and benefits of a legally recognised relationship with both their parents.

I am a nurse by profession but the most important role in my life is being a mammy to my three-year old twins, Clara and Matthew, who were born through international surrogacy. An incredible surrogate mother gave birth to them, the most precious gift in our family's life. To this day, and with her consent, we are still in contact with each other. We both share our families' experiences and photographs on a weekly basis. I personally value our relationship and I feel it is very important we maintain a relationship for Clara's and Matthew's future sense of identity.

Irish Families Through Surrogacy believe it is paramount to share our children's birth story with them, age-appropriately, and we encourage all families through surrogacy to do this. Under Irish law, the surrogate is seen as our twins' mother, although she is not genetically related to them nor does she live in the State.

There are many life-altering medical reasons which result in couples pursuing surrogacy. These include cancer, which was the case with me, endometriosis, cystic fibrosis, post-organ transplant, Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser, MRKH, syndrome, multiple miscarriages, congenital heart conditions, stillbirth and unexplained infertility.

We, as a group, acknowledge the complexities and we understand that in Ireland we cannot legislate for what happens in another jurisdiction, but we can guide all stakeholders to make ethical and safer choices. What we can legislate for are the safeguards and protections expected for the surrogate mother, children and intended parents. A big gap in the proposed legislation is that there is not a mechanism in law to create the legal parent relationship for children born through surrogacy so that the child has a legal link with both parents. We have learned from other jurisdictions how this can be overcome and, in addition, we are asking for the creation of a route to parenthood for all existing children born through surrogacy, as recommended by Professor Conor O'Mahony.

This is Ireland's opportunity to be a world leader, to recognise the diverse and evolving nature of modern families and to legislate appropriately. Effectively, as it stands, our children only have one parent, their father, in the State, who can provide legal protection and stability. The current process to allow the father to assign the parental rights can take up to five years, depending on where in the country the court proceedings are taking place. This can effectively leave the child stateless and parentless until such time as the father can be granted the parental order. Additionally, without a second parentage, we as their mammies are seen as legal strangers to our children.

On a daily basis the lack of legislation affects our children and our ability to parent and protect them. This includes such areas as healthcare, education, finance, travel and psychological well-being. In terms of healthcare, one of our members from County Carlow prepared for her son's six-week check-up with her public health nurse. She was told that the check-up could not be completed because the child's father was not present. A number of members have had to bring their children's father to their newborn and Covid-19 vaccination appointments as the children's mother was unable to consent to the administration of vaccines. Several members have been unable to accompany their children in hospital for investigations or surgery. If our children are hospitalised, we cannot legally give medical consent for their care. Due to Covid-19 public health restrictions, only one parent could accompany their child. This separation has been extremely distressing for both our members and their children. Mothers have spent their time being forced to sit in hospital car parks as they await news of their children, desperate to comfort them.

As their mother, I cannot enrol my children in a crèche or in school. Their father has to sign these forms. Our members report that it can be difficult to share children's birth stories with these institutions. Some of our members have not been able to give their children permission to go on school trips. It is the simple things. We cannot sign for assessment of need applications if it is required for our children to access further resources in school or crèche. I have personally had this experience in recent weeks, and I had to ask my husband to sign the forms. I have also had to ask my husband to sign the permission form for the crèche to administer Calpol to Clara and Matthew should the need arise.

In the area of finance, one of our members from Donegal was turned away when trying to set up a bank account for her daughter. This was an extremely embarrassing and distressing incident for the child's mother. There is no entitlement to maternity leave benefit afforded to the intended mother. In terms of inheritance, children born through surrogacy are disadvantaged due to what parents can gift or they can inherit from their mother or maternal grandparents. This can leave them liable to incur tax penalties. If the surrogate mother is in the State, her children would also be entitled to inheritance from her should the situation occur. Most members have to take out loans or remortgage their homes to be able to pursue surrogacy, which is life-altering.

As mothers, we cannot apply for our children's passport. The father applies for the passport as a single father. We, as their mothers, cannot travel alone abroad with our children without showing proof from the father. A number of our members have experience of being questioned at passport control. Members have reported a lack of opportunity to bond with their child as a result of not being able to take maternity leave.

I am happy to report that, of late, there have been very good examples within industry of supporting parents of children born through surrogacy, for example, in Vodafone, Three Ireland and Diageo. In my own case, at the time of birth I worked in one of the big Dublin academic teaching hospitals that is very near here. It fully supported my application for leave, which proves it can be done. Our children's grandparents, aunties, uncles and cousins on the maternal side have no legal link to them. When I recently completed the census form, I found it very difficult as there was no category for me to tick. Should I tick the "mother" box, or am I just considered as an "other"?

Our members feel our children are vulnerable as they were not born in a conventional method, leaving them open to bullying and ridicule in the school playground as their mammy is not considered their legal mammy. We worry about their awareness that we are not really their mothers in Irish law. As they grow older and more aware, this may affect their future sense of identity and well-being. Our members also report daily feelings of being an imposter as mothers. We, as mothers, require permission from our children's father to apply for guardianship status. If there was a marriage break-up, the wife would be left in a vulnerable position in terms of rights over her children, which could be used against her in an exploitative way.

Our children were created by us, albeit in a non-traditional manner. We are their constant and their advocates. We are their mammies and their family. They have no other parents other than us. Our children's needs are paramount. They need stability and certainty from having the benefit of two legally recognised parents. Our Irish children deserve respect, dignity and equality. They need their family unit to be protected and to have a parent for a lifetime, not just until they are 18 years of age. We are the voice of our children - our children who are here, living, breathing citizens of Ireland. We trust, believe and hope the committee will acknowledge and respect our children's existence and rights. We thank our Government for the establishment of this Joint Committee for International Surrogacy, and we trust the committee will put forward recommendations that will include a statutory regulatory framework for international surrogacy to be included in the proposed assisted human reproduction legislation.