Ms Cathy Wheatley:

I thank the Deputy. On the specialist committee that is coming up, we want it to look at all aspects of surrogacy but we want it to keep in mind that these are real families we are talking about. These are ordinary, everyday people – nurses, teachers and farmers - who have found themselves in a situation, through no fault of their own, where they have to avail of surrogacy to complete their families. For us, surrogacy is a medical treatment and an answer to a medical problem, which is very important to remember. It is not a choice; it is a medical treatment. With so many advances in medical treatment, we are very privileged and honoured to be able to create our family in this way.

By no means do we feel entitled to do so. We just feel absolutely delighted that we can, given situations like those mentioned by Ms Merrigan in her opening statement. We have members who have cystic fibrosis and members who have congenital heart defects. In my own situation, my first little girl was stillborn. We really need to get across that it is not a choice. It is 100% our only option to create a family.

In terms of what we want, our asks are very simple. We absolutely want a pathway to parenthood for the mother or second parent of children who are already born. That is really important to us. As we talked about previously with Dr. O'Mahony and Senator Seery Kearney, we want an amnesty if the criteria do not meet expectations going forward. We need to make sure that these children are not left behind and that we have that pathway to parenthood. We want all parties protected. As we said earlier, we want our children protected. We want our amazing surrogates protected because they are doing this for us. We want a future route for parents of future children who are going to be born. As Dr. O’Mahony said, whether it is domestic or international, it is still going to happen and international surrogacy is very much still going to happen. We believe those people are entitled to parenthood.

We cannot underestimate the power of language in what guardianship gives people and what parenthood gives people. Once we break it down, we are very much their parents, and guardianship just never seems enough because of the fact it ends at 18. That is a real bugbear for us as families. We really want to make sure that we are recognised as their parents and to let the children have that. Our children need to know that it is not going to stop at 18. It gives them a sense of security and stability and it is a lifelong commitment to them that we have all made.

We want international surrogacy recognised and we want that for a reason. If it is recognised, safeguards will be put in place that will protect our surrogates. There will be situations where we can assist the process. It is very important for that reason. We also want an ethical framework for everybody involved.

Our hope for today's meeting is a little different. What we want from this is to separate those two issues. There is, of course, a conversation that needs to be had around international surrogacy and it is a very important conversation. At the end of the day, however, there is a conversation about the children who are living, breathing Irish citizens who are here now - our families. We want to get across the need for them to be protected now as opposed to them being bundled in together with international surrogacy and what that means. If I could just show committee members the faces of the children all going through different stages in life, from newborn babies up to children who are coming to 18 years old, I would.

The time is nearly gone and it will be too late for us to establish a legal relationship with those, which is absolutely not what we want as parents. I reiterate that we want to separate the two issues. We want the children's rights, of the children who are here and now, to be recognised.