Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

A whole lot of questions need to be answered in respect of the unknowns during that period. We are talking about things happening ideally as soon as possible and that kind of thing. The three people concerned, the birth mother and the intending parents, have joint guardianship during that interregnum, or whatever you would like to call that period, subject to the agreement of the surrogate mother. A lot of that detail remains to be worked out, not least the question I asked at the briefing about how we can have the timescales the Minister is proposing on the basis of having easy access to the courts, which is not by any means guaranteed. Other Departments are implicated in all of this. What discussions has the Minister had since our briefing with the Courts Service in terms of access within a reasonable timescale for cases such as this where time is of the essence? That is one point, and I would not mind seeing a note on the issue. My overriding point is that all of this is, according to the Minister, based on an assumption in law that the birth mother is regarded as the legal mother. I cannot see that in the law. What is that assumption based on? If there is evidence that is the case, a lot of other things flow from it. However, I am asking if that is the case or not. I cannot see where that is set down in law.