Ms Ranae von Meding:

On behalf of Equality for Children, I thank the committee for the opportunity to present to it today. I am the chief executive officer of Equality for Children, a not-for-profit volunteer-led organisation that represents hundreds of LGBTQ+ families across Ireland.

Equality for Children was formed in 2019 with the intention of fighting for equal treatment for children born to LGBTQ+ families in Ireland through donor-assisted conception and surrogacy. More importantly, I am also a proud same-sex parent to two daughters with my wife Audrey. Ava is five and Arya is three.

This committee has been established to look at the issue of international surrogacy. Today’s session has been convened to look at, among other things, the retrospective recognition of international surrogacy. The committee has heard from our close friends at Irish Gay Dads about how surrogacy can be regulated in an ethical way and how the lack of regulation affects same-sex male couples who have children through international surrogacy. However, international surrogacy is not an option for Irish same-sex female couples. Currently and under the proposed legislation, parental rights through international surrogacy are only awarded through the biological male parent. This means that there is no path to parenthood for two women who may need to access surrogacy. As far as we are aware, there are no children born to same-sex female couples via international surrogacy who require retrospective recognition.

Today, we are asking the committee not only to ensure that same-sex male couples can access international surrogacy and that children already born and conceived through surrogacy to same-sex male couples are included in the legislation, but also to ensure that same-sex female couples can access international surrogacy and that all those LGBTQ+ families left out of current and proposed legislation do not continue to be left in legal limbo. We are asking that the committee make recommendations to amend the Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Bill 2022 and the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015 to include all children born to LGBTQ+ parents through international surrogacy and donor-assisted conception.

I will now hand over to my colleague, Ms Maeve Delargy, a member of Equality for Children and a practising solicitor, who will outline the current position of countless LGBTQ+ families across Ireland.