Ms Claire O'Connell:

Ms Merrigan explained matters so well. I will add a reason to legislate. We have international obligations to do so. Whenever we ask ourselves why we should legislate, the question really should be why we should not. It is ultimately a right to beget a child and to have respect for private and family life. If the committee does not want to, though I do not recommend that, it would have to justify it with regard to balancing of rights, proportionality, and so on.

There was a reference earlier to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The committee on the rights of the child, which is the reporting body for the convention, has consistently recommended in its periodic reports to Ireland that we should create these pathways. The primary aim of the Ombudsman for Children's Office is to uphold the convention and it has also made multiple submissions to recommend that a pathway be created.

The Senator asked for a definition of ethical surrogacy. I am sorry to say I do not know if there is one in a legal sense. There is certainly not in Ireland, because we do not have a framework at all. From my perspective, the witnesses yesterday, including Dr. Horsey and Ms Gamble, spoke well about the idea that we cannot just have altruistic surrogacy meaning ethical surrogacy and commercial surrogacy meaning non-ethical surrogacy. The primary principle that should be adhered to is respecting the surrogate, her autonomy, her informed consent and her decisions, as a woman, about what to do. If we create a framework that is regulated and includes those safeguards, there is no reason it cannot or should not be done. I hope I answered the Senator's questions.