David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte. This is very important legislation for the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly. I wish him well and I am sure he would have wanted to be here to move this legislation today. I acknowledge the work he has done in this area, and the fact that he is bringing forward the Bill. I wish him a speedy recovery.

I welcome the introduction of the Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Bill 2022, and the opportunity it provides to us to speak on this and related issues. It has been a long time coming. It has been too long for some families and it is important that we get it working as soon as possible.

Sinn Féin will be supporting the Bill at this Stage, as it provides for a much-needed regulatory framework for assisted human reproduction treatments and related research, which we have sought for a number of years. Importantly, it provides for domestic altruistic surrogacy arrangements, which will help many families in the State avail of surrogacy where they require it, without needing to travel abroad or engage in complex, non-standardised agreements, which may or may not protect the rights of the child and the rights of parents.

The Bill does not at this stage deal with the difficult question of international surrogacy arrangements. This is an area we need to give serious consideration to, and we must get it right. As the Minister of State said, a special committee of the Oireachtas is to be established. I also understand and appreciate there are very complex moral and ethical issues that arise from international surrogacy that need to be dealt with in a more sensitive way. It is also a service that many people have used, for their own benefit and for the benefit of the children they now have. There are very real issues that need to be addressed. It must be a rights-based approach that protects those involved and does not lend itself to permitting exploitation of any kind, but which fundamentally recognises the situation that some families have, unfortunately, found themselves in. Hopefully, the Bill will provide an effective alternative by providing this framework for domestic altruistic surrogacy arrangements. There are, however, many families who exist in the here and now, and others who may come into being between now and the commencement of each of these sections, to whom this Bill may not apply once enacted. It will take some time for the regulatory authority to be up and running, and we must be conscious of the needs and experiences of families in the meantime.

Sinn Féin will work constructively with the Government, with the Ministers in government, and with other parties through the special committee, which will be established. I hope we can come to an all-party agreement on how to deal with the difficult legal and ethical problems the issue poses, with a solution that protects the rights of children, parents and surrogates. It is essential that we do not ignore the use of international surrogacy and the likelihood of this continuing between now and the availability of domestic surrogacy arrangements, and that we regulate it appropriately thereafter.

For me, the biggest potential omission from the Bill is the rights of parents and children who, in the here and now, are having issues with securing full parental rights. I have met with many of them over the past months. Many of them I am sure will welcome the Bill but they have their own concerns which, unfortunately, will not be addressed in the context of this Bill. The Government must ensure all of the rights that will, hopefully, be enjoyed by future parents through surrogacy are available to those parents and children who need certainty now. As it currently stands, for an intending mother of a child born through surrogacy, there is no route to legal parentage other than adoption, even if she has provided the egg from which the child was conceived and is the child’s genetic mother. There are many cases affected by this issue and I have spoken with families who are looking to the Government and the Minister for Health to solve the problem. Perhaps the issue will be addressed in the context of the special committee to be established. I certainly hope so. I would have hoped, however, that in some way it would have been addressed in the Bill. It is unfortunate that it is not addressed.

A case I remember in particular is that of Antoinette and her husband Barry from County Offaly, whose children Eanna and Doireann were born in Kyiv. Antoinette and Barry’s story was told last summer in the newspapers and I heard them speak on radio of their experience. The law, as it stands, means that when those children arrived in the State, Antoinette was not legally the mother, despite the fact she is recognised as the mother in Ukraine. This is because the law in Ireland only recognises the person giving birth as the mother. The Bill, in section 62, provides for the recognition of parentage only in the context of permitted surrogacies subsequent to the Act. That will not help the many mothers and parents in a similar situation, and it is not clear if it is the Government's intention to provide a pathway for all of those left in a legal limbo due to the current system. It means that mothers of children born through surrogacy between now and the commencement of domestic surrogacy arrangements, which could take years to be enacted and to work, will not be entitled to maternity leave, yet the father will be entitled to paternity leave. It will mean that they cannot travel alone with the children, cannot take medical decisions for the children, and are not seen as the parent. If something was to happen to the father, in these instances, there could be very serious difficulties for families stuck in this situation. We must ensure full rights for both parents, and I hope the Government will be able to move on this, and perhaps clarify whether or not these issues will be dealt with comprehensively when the special committee is established.

I hope the Minister of State will agree that we must ensure the rights of these parents, and that the Government must provide for the retrospective or retroactive recognition of their rights where it can. I am sure we will get legal opinion and legal advice on all of these matters in due course, and obviously we must take on board that legal opinion. It is heartbreaking to listen to the stories of families who are in this situation and in this legal limbo. We need to regularise the situation and make sure the rights of the mother in these circumstances are upheld, are protected and are in place. Unfortunately, that is not the case at the moment.

One of the most important aspects of the Bill is the establishment of an assisted human reproduction regulatory authority. I thank the Minister for Health for taking this approach. I believe it is the right approach. This authority will regulate and provide information on the range of AHR treatments and services open to patients across the health sector. Importantly, its principal function is to ensure the health and well-being of children born as a result of AHR treatments, persons undergoing treatment, and intending parents. It must be a holistic approach, and the fact that an authority is to be established signals that intent. It is welcome that there will be such an authority to safeguard their rights, and which can provide information to prospective patients. This must be established as quickly as possible, with its board and CEO appointed as soon as possible, allowing for the appointments process to take its course. Staffing and resourcing this authority is a key concern, and I would welcome any additional information the Minister of State can provide on the resources it will need, and on when the Minister or the Minister of State can expect those resources to be put in place.

In the final part of my contribution I will focus on public provision of services. We need to make sure opportunities for assisted human reproduction treatment are available to everybody, and not just to those who can afford it. As the Minister of State will be aware, families who need access to fertility treatments, IVF, and other services to aid in having children, must access this privately. It costs a lot of money. It can cost from €10,000 to €20,000 or €30,000. Sometimes, families must get two or three rounds of treatment before there is a success. Many cannot afford to do it. It is heartbreaking for them when they spend all of that money, it does not work out, and they do not have the money to try again. This is wrong. While there is a huge cost to this, we must look at expanding this out as a public service. While the Bill and the regulatory authority will bring some cohesion to the sector, and ensure higher quality services and more certainty, many families will simply not be able to afford the cost.

Once this Bill is enacted, I ask the Minister of State and the Government to make it a priority to develop the public services available to families who cannot meet the cost of going private.

While the Minister of State is in the Chamber, I would like to meet her about children's disability services and the recent High Court judgment about assessment of needs. I am sure she will agree it was a very important judgment. We want to make sure children get the services they need, as I am sure the Minister of State does as well. I would welcome an opportunity to meet on that issue.

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