Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Bill. Many parents of babies born through surrogacy have contacted me about anomalies that occurred when they brought their babies home. Many couples are unfortunate, in that they cannot have children of their own. For one reason or another, they have been deprived of this. They then do the next best thing, which is surrogacy.

Some years ago, a lady I was very close with lost her life trying to have the baby that she and her husband so dearly wished for. They went through many IVF treatments. This lady was young. She jeopardised her own health and lost her life. She went through so many intense treatments that the family believe they played a part in her death.

I have been contacted by a number of couples who are having problems becoming legal parents. Usually, the man can become a legal parent but the mother or second parent cannot even become a guardian until after the child is two years old. There are laws in Ireland governing surrogacy. As a result, biological fathers of children born through surrogacy have more rights than the child's intended mother or second parent. The following issue was brought to our attention by spokespersons for the Irish Families Through Surrogacy advocacy group. Once a child reaches 18 years of age, these women have no standing as a guardian and up to two years of age they cannot make any decisions regarding the health of their beloved babies. This can only be done by the father. This is a slap in the face to these mothers who care for their children and want to help them in every way possible. That needs to be rectified. As we do not have availability of surrogacy in Ireland, these women have to travel abroad and this is resulting in that discrepancy. I welcome the Bill if it is going address these issues.

There is another issue in that when the child reaches the age of 18, if the mother wants to transfer her assets or whatever to that child, because she is non-related, the tax exemption is only €16,000. If she was legally deemed to be the child's mother the tax exemption would be €335,000. We all know the value of a house today. If that mother wanted to leave a house to a son or daughter, it is wrong that the difference in tax would be payable to the State.

Surrogacy is not a choice; it is a last resort. It can be couples only opportunity to build a family due to debilitating infertility and medical conditions after a long difficult journey. Many parents who undergo surrogacy are married couples where one or both contribute genetic material to have the maximum possible biological input to their child. The number of emergency travel certificates issued by the Irish Consulate in the Ukraine for children born as a result of surrogacy arrangements have been illustrated in many tables, but they do not include the number of children born in the USA and Canada who also need emergency travel certificates. The figures indicate an upward trend in international surrogacy and the need for international surrogacy to be acknowledged and provided for in legislation.

As I said, I support the Bill. I thank the Government for bringing it forward. Much of the time in this House, we are critical of Government, but this is legislation we asked for following this issue having been brought to our intention. We are glad that Government has responded. I hope that the Bill goes through without any major difficulty.

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