Dr. Trevor Redmond:

It is difficult to envisage the abstract but the key difficulty we have is applying guidelines in new circumstances where we need to examine the law in that country and the notice we may have of a birth may be relatively short. It does put pressure on the Department and seek that. The law in those countries might be unclear. If one is dealing with a country where surrogacy is unregulated, one might receive legal advice that has ambiguities. In that context, the Department is occasionally in a difficult position. For example, if there was a regulatory agency in Ireland that was responsible for looking at jurisdictions and providing advice, that may take a burden off the Department of Foreign Affairs in the context of those situations where there is potentially short notice. That may be of benefit to us.