Ms Claire O'Connell:

For clarification, under the 2022 Bill, as I understand it, the process is that the surrogate will be on the birth certificate. The intending parents will subsequently get an entry on the register of parental orders which, for all intents and purposes, would be useful in the State as a birth certificate or what have you. The issue for a long time has been the exclusionary nature of a birth certificate. The birth certificate only recognises people who are parents - the mother and father or mother and second parent or what have you. I hope I am not speaking out of turn for the rest of the coalition but the idea is that although there would be no issue in respect of having the surrogate registered as the surrogate or surrogate mother or whatever it may be, the parents are the intending parents. It is not to exclude her or minimise her contribution in any way; it is just to create a bit of separation. I refer to the research carried out by Dr. Horsey.

As regards the remarks of Ms Duffy, I do not think that in all or most circumstances the surrogate wants to be registered as a mother on a birth certificate.