Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for the opening statements. Ms Nic Dhomhnaill referred to the longitudinal studies and stated that disclosure may not happen where there is a lack of education or understanding of why it should, or where there is a fear of othering the child, yet best-practice experience in psychology suggests and strongly supports the idea that full disclosure from the very beginning is the correct way forward for the child. One of the difficulties in parents' discussions relates to what sort of language happens in this context and how to equip children with age-appropriate words in order that they will have an understanding of what is private information versus what can be publicly shared. I would welcome Ms Nic Dhomhnaill’s thoughts on that and on how we could best build in a mechanism that would ensure that parents would be equipped to have those discussions and on how they can be continuously supported. Most important, how best can the child be continuously supported in that regard?

Ms Nic Dhomhnaill's area of expertise relates to cases where there is family breakdown and the effect of separation on children. As the law stands, mothers of children born via surrogacy are in an especially vulnerable position in Ireland because they have no legal relationship with their child and, therefore, in a case of family relationship breakdown, there is often a weaponising of that child to the detriment of both the child and the mother with whom, as Ms Nic Dhomhnaill pointed out, the child might have had a very good relationship.