Ms Fiona Duffy:

If somebody arrives at my door and says that he or she wants advice, the first thing I have to do is ascertain whether there will be a biological link between the male intending parent, or at least one male intending parent, and the child who will be born. I have to ascertain whether that male is an Irish citizen so that he can get the child back to Ireland. Those are the first two considerations we have. Generally, when people come to me they have done their homework and they have decided where it is they will go. Their primary interest is to find out how they can establish a relationship with the child when they come back to Ireland. One of the most difficult things when I am talking to a couple like that, whether it is a same-sex couple or not, is that I have to turn to the second intending parent and tell him or her that I am sorry because there is nothing I can do for him or her at the moment and I can only give advice to the intended biological male parent. I go through the process for them when they come back to Ireland. I am an Irish lawyer and I can only advise them on the process here. My advice to people going abroad is always that they first need to take independent legal advice where they are going. As we are dealing with same-sex couples in this sitting of the committee, I will concentrate on them. Invariably, most men will go to America or Canada. There is generally an agency they will deal with and then they go through the process of a donor agreement, a carrier agreement-----