Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The amendment is well intentioned and I share the proposers' view that the delay of three years has been unacceptable. Some of it was reasonable because the infrastructure needed to be put in place. The legislation made some significant changes. I share the frustration over how long this has taken and I acknowledge that it is not all-encompassing - Parts 1 and 2. I also share the desire to keep the Government under pressure because there have been too many delays.

My concern with the amendment is that essentially we would insert into legislation a call on the Government to report on different legislation that does not exist yet. That does not seem to be helpful. We have all been contacted by people who have been trying to figure out what the two separate Bills do. There are Parts 1 and 2 of the Child and Family Relationships (Amendment) Bill, which will be commenced after tonight because I think everyone is supporting it.

There is also what we are dealing with in the Joint Committee on Health, which is the assisted human reproduction Bill. Only today did we sign off on our pre-legislative scrutiny report which will come back to the House for consideration. I am concerned that the reason there is confusion and, therefore, the reason there is a lot of understandable anxiety among people affected by these two Bills is that they are very close.

This Bill deals with cases where the intending mother gives birth. Therefore it works for straight couples, lesbian couples and a woman on her own. It does not work for surrogacy or for a man on his own or for two gay men.

That is not a clear and it is confusing. I fully accept the amendment is not meant to cause any confusion but my concern is it will because it would legislatively link the two Bills and they are separate.

I have a second concern which is a small team of officials is dealing with all of this. We are dealing with it at the health committee but the committee's schedule is full. There are a lot of things going on in health. The first meeting of the health committee next term will be on the eighth amendment and our second meeting will be on the implementation of Sláintecare and so forth. There are many different issues. Seeking a report will take up time and could conceivably slow down the passage of the next Bill which we are all behind. We all want to see as much as possible. I fully support the intent of the amendment. It is not trying to confuse but it could slow things down. Linking the Act with a Bill on which we are still at heads of Bill stage will lead to further confusion. It is up to the proposers of the amendment to do what they want. What we all want is to keep up the pressure. If the Minister were to consider committing to the House this evening that in the next six months rather than us giving a report which will be filed and on which there might not be any debate, he could give some Dáil time to discuss this issue again. We could go back and forth with him. The pressure would be maintained with the added benefit that we could all stand up and have a go if it was not being addressed. We can do the same in committee. A report will come and go. I wanted to put that suggestion forward.

If the amendment is pressed, Fianna Fáil will abstain for those reasons. I fully support what the amendment is trying to do but it will add to the confusion and slow everything down, which none of us wants. It is up to the Minister. Will he consider committing to Dáil time in which we could do a question and answer session to make sure progress is being made because it has not been made quickly enough?

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