Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the witnesses and apologise for the fact that I will be obliged to leave to attend another appointment when I have asked my questions. I have provided more detailed questions to which the witnesses might be able to reply in writing. They are fairly general and any replies would be for my own information.

I have a concern that the prohibition on sex selection other than where there might be a significant risk to the child being born one sex or the other may be hijacked by people seeking to inject a bit of misinformation into the system. There are people who are opposed to assisted human reproduction. I will not name them but I am sure the witnesses have an idea of whom I am speaking. It needs to be made crystal clear - and it is not possible to say it enough - that the purpose of this will not be to engage in some form of gender-based selection and, indeed, that it will not happen save in very discrete and distinct circumstances. I ask the witnesses to elaborate on that if possible.

Head 36 relates to surrogacy. I note the potential for forced surrogacy. In that scenario, we have all heard stories in the media and I have some experience of hearing first hand about vulnerable migrant women who may have been forced into surrogacy. Certainly, that has been suggested. Where this happens and it becomes apparent halfway through the pregnancy, there is very little that can be done. The pregnancy will proceed. However, it is a very severe violation of a woman's human rights. Indeed, it does the poor child no service either. Can the Department outline what legal provisions can be made and should be to dissuade people from doing that and also to impose punitive sanctions? What scope is there for including those to ensure that this will not happen?

I raise the these points because there are people who are opposed to the legislation who will settle on any small aspect of it to criticise the whole. I have had people approach me and I know there are individuals watching who are desperate for the legislation to go through. We all want to see it go through and we want to see it happen quickly and properly. If we are to answer the detractors in advance, we need to be able to deal with issues like forced surrogacy and sex selection. I have submitted further questions and I can wait for the answers in written form.