Ms Ciara Merrigan:

I thank the Senator for her questions. We were married in 2011 and, unfortunately, we had a number of miscarriages. Our story on our surrogacy journey started in a Dublin acute hospital, when I was diagnosed with endometrial cancer and my gynaecologist recommended that I have a total hysterectomy. I was only 33 at the time, which was pretty young for that type of surgery. At that time, as part of the cancer treatment, my consultant spoke to me about surrogacy. She spoke about the experiences of other previous patients of hers, indicating it was a real option for me and my husband to create a family.

At that point she referred me to the Rotunda IVF clinic, which was known in those days as the HARI clinic. She referred me to the clinic so we could have our embryos created and frozen. We completed two cycles at the Rotunda IVF clinic. It is important to note that one of those cycles was funded by the State as part of my cancer treatment. That is the normal process for young people with gynaecological cancers, including cervical, endometrial, ovarian and those types of cancer.

We created the embryos and, ethically, I did not think we could just leave them there. They were all a possibility of life. When I got over surgery etc., we started researching the possibility of surrogacy. We looked at both domestic and international options but there was no legislation about this in the country. That did not sit right with me and we looked internationally then. We looked for a country that had a robust framework in place.

Ukraine was the country we chose to pursue our surrogacy journey. We started to research different options and clinics in Ukraine. It is interesting because one of the clinics in Ukraine was owned by the same company that owns the IVF clinic we were dealing with here. Essentially, they are all owned by the same company and therefore they all had the same standards, procedures and book of policies. Even on a more practical note, they had the same way of thawing an embryo in the clinic in Ukraine as they did here in the Rotunda IVF clinic lab. The book of standards was exactly the same.

At that point we looked at transferring or transporting our embryos from Ireland to Ukraine and it takes a while to get one's head around the thought that part of you and your husband is in a plane flying to Ukraine. We met the people in our clinic. It was explained to us at that point that we had to complete an external clinic assessment. It is a six-page document and I have a copy of it with me today. I pulled it out to have a look over it. The case is assessed for legitimacy to ensure standards and licensing are in place, including a registration with the regulatory body in Ukraine. There were even questions about success rates. After that, the quality managers in the labs both in Dublin and Ukraine communicated and an inter-clinic agreement was set up. That was a 23-page document between the two clinics.

The clinic in Dublin then had to apply to the Health Products Regulatory Authority, HPRA, for permission or a licence to export our embryos from Ireland to Ukraine. There is much paperwork in that process and it took approximately three months. It is quite a long process. The clinic in Ukraine had to do something similar and apply to its regulatory authority, asking for a notification of import. Essentially, there were two regulatory bodies involved to ensure the standards, processes and everything else were in place on both sides.

The clinic here was happy with the clinic we had chosen in Ukraine. Again, it was owned by the same company and had the same standards, procedures etc. The next step was to employ a courier or transporter that is licensed, with procedures, protocols and standards in place to carry these precious embryos from one country to the other. Again, the clinic in Dublin had to ensure it was happy with the person we chose to do this. The clinic in Ukraine also had to agree it was happy to take the embryos from the transporter and it was happy with the standards and procedures etc. that were in place. At that stage, we decided - pardon the pun - not to put all our eggs in one basket so we completed the process twice. The documents had to be completed on both occasions because they were separate transfers.

There are some lessons to be learned already within the system that we can bring to the table. There are regulatory bodies already working together, so to speak.

Even for a couple here in Ireland, it was reassuring for us that the clinic in Ireland completed all these processes. They had nearly confirmed that everything was right about the clinic in Ukraine as well. There are learnings there from industry that we can acknowledge here at the committee. Does that answer the Senator's question or does she need any more information?