Ms Siobhan Byrne:

I am happy to respond first. For us, we are dealing with the international element of the surrogacy and that is our primary focus. While we would welcome legislation that would streamline the process for us, there is always going to be an element for us whereby we have to abide by local law. That adds a different nuance for us. While a streamlined process domestically would certainly be of benefit, it would not be possible for the process also to work for every country to which a family may go. When we get a family going to a country we have not dealt with before, that can take longer because we need to establish what the local law is in that country and tweak the process to fit where necessary. We would absolutely welcome a streamlined process, but there are always going to be challenges for our Department in that regard.