Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the speakers today. When Ms Delargy spoke about her wife with her two beautiful daughters at home, as Ms von Meding did, I was thinking that I had two of my grandchildren for the weekend and I was exhausted. I actually said to myself that I was glad to be back to work on Tuesday. Let me tell the committee members, as they will know, it is a full-time job, in itself, and they are only three-and-a-half and ten months old. I can tell members I had my hands full for the weekend. I also thank Ms Wheatley and Ms Merrigan for their stories. I know Ms Keegan also, who has been marvellous over the years, and I compliment her too.

I watched "The Late Late Show" a few weeks ago when Ms Wheatley was on it with her surrogate. Actually, my heart stopped. I thought it was beautiful to hear the two of them speaking on "The Late Late Show" about their journey and how Ms Wheatley went to meet her in Ukraine despite the war. Ms Wheatley touched a lot of people but, because I know her and I know Ms Merrigan, I just thought, "Oh my God". It was just so emotional. I just want to say, "Well done".

From listening to everyone, it just goes to show that this legislation is so important. It is a framework. It is a document that will make everything legal and that is what we want. We want them to be recognised and that is what we need to do. We need to move on it as quickly as we can. It is so important when one hears the stories, and particularly when it comes to medical issues and things like that.

I have been talking to a lot of women recently who have taken the in vitrofertilisation, IVF, route. That is another area where they have to go. Nobody wants to be in a position where they need to.

We need to do this. When you see children - I saw it at the weekend - and the love that they give you, your whole life is changed and it is lovely. Your whole world is upside down and your house is upside.

There are two questions I want to ask. They are questions I was thinking of the other day. Do the witnesses believe transferring parental rights to the intended parents should happen before the birth of the child or after? It is just something I was wondering about. Would something like the birth certificates that marked the surrogate mother for tracing purposes later in life be something that we may need to look at?

We cannot impose laws for other countries. We need to lead here. What core standards should be in place to ensure that we protect the rights of all the parties involved? Is there something specific there? Ms Merrigan, in particular, went through many legislative issues. That definitely needs to be looked at. In general, is there anything there that might make a difference to this?

Again, I thank the witnesses. I am so touched and I am very supportive. I am fully committed to doing anything I can do to help. I do not know who wants to take the questions. Perhaps Ms Merrigan will.