Mr. Gearóid Kenny Moore:

I might take the second part of the Senator's question, about the reality of bringing children home once they have been born and the impact of not being recognised. For context, we represent parents who have had children through three locations, namely, the United States, Canada and the UK. In the United States and Canada, because of the presence of legislation, as soon as the child has been born the intended parents are considered the legal parents, whether they are an opposite-sex couple or a same-sex couple. That means they have the right, within the hospital setting, to make all decisions regarding the welfare of the child, such as what postnatal checks can be done, what blood tests can be carried out and so on.

In the UK, the situation is the same as in Ireland. The woman who gives birth is the legal mother and, therefore, she has to make all those decisions. That is the experience we had, whereby our children were born in the UK. I might talk a little about the emotional side of that and how it all feels. For the surrogate mother in our case, and for most surrogate mothers, it is a pretty difficult stage. They will have just given birth and will be recovering from that, they will have intended that the intended parents would be the parents of the child, and they will then be drawn into a process where they will have to make decisions about the child and how he or she will be treated in hospital. Even if those decisions are very standard ones, such as whether a vitamin K injection can be given or whether a blood sample can be taken, it still puts the surrogate mother in a position in which she never wanted to be. Imagine how complicated it then gets if the child has additional needs and needs to stay in hospital for a period. Potentially, the surrogate mother, even though she might be ready to go home, would be forced to stay in the hospital to be present with the child and to meet the legal obligations. That is not right for the surrogate mother.

From our perspective, having been in that situation, it deflates your bubble somewhat. You will be on this incredible high, as anybody who has experienced the arrival of one's child will know, and now you are being sidestepped. The nurses and doctors will be very busy and might say they cannot really talk to anyone except the surrogate mother, who can give that consent. It does not feel good. We knew all this in advance, having taken legal advice before we went to the UK so we knew what we were signing up for, but nonetheless, when it happens, it impacts on you and on how you feel about your position as a parent. One of my colleagues from Irish Families Through Surrogacy mentioned at last week's meeting that she felt like a bit of an actor sometimes as a parent. What I have described is a prime example of how you can made to feel like an actor.

As for what the State can do when you get back to Ireland in order to help you feel recognised, it can make the process as accessible as possible, that is, making the declaration of parentage as accessible and quick as possible and allowing for it to apply to both parents, not just the genetic one. As Mr. Lennon mentioned, it could be that certain locations and providers would be put on a green list, and if the process looks as though it has taken place properly and there are affidavits to declare that, perhaps the process could be short-circuited to allow the declaration of parentage to be proceed much faster than it currently does.