Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank all our guests who have contributed to the meeting. We have heard some very personal stories and I acknowledge how difficult it must be for people to share them. I thank Ms Cohen, in particular, for getting up at 5 a.m. to attend remotely. I absolutely commend Ms O'Shea and Ms Reid on their courage in coming here to outline their especially personal circumstances and to fight for their nieces and nephews. Becoming a surrogate is such a courageous step to take, although I acknowledge they have both told us it was not courageous but rather was just something they needed to do. While they very much took pride in it, they were, as Ms O’Shea said, babysitting for nine months, as many an aunt would do.

The legal conundrums they have outlined are what we are all here to try to resolve. Ms O'Shea stated she hopes it will be resolved before Lucy turns 18 and we fully intend that to be the case. Do any of our guests have advice they would like to use this platform to share with families who are having these discussions? One issue I struggle with, and I have asked this question of a number of the experts who have appeared before us, relates to how we in Ireland can ensure international surrogacy is carried out in accordance with the Verona Principles and our other standards in cases where we deal with countries where we have no control over the standards they have in place or over their laws governing agencies? I was struck when Ms Cohen said not many people in Canada travel for international surrogacy, so I do not know whether it is fair to ask her the question. Nevertheless, she gave us three examples of countries people there do deal with. How is Canada navigating that? For me, it is the big challenge.

Turning to Ms Oakes and Ms Ó Tuama, I fully believe in the benefits of counselling when it comes to any fertility challenge. I was especially interested to hear their recommendations in that regard for surrogacy, which come from the need to protect all the parties involved. Through that lens of ensuring the full protection of everybody involved, should we consider making counselling more than voluntary and more than something people might just consider? Does there need to be an assessment to ensure everybody is in the right frame of mind before entering agreements?