Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It has been said by many others at this point that there is an absolute and necessary need for a regulatory framework with regard to assisted human reproduction and the wider issues of surrogacy and IVF. It also been said by many, including my colleague, Deputy Paul Donnelly, that there are significant questions with which we need to deal. A significant amount of due diligence will be required on Committee Stage. Deputy Jim O'Callaghan spoke about the difficulty or, I suppose, the reality with regard to international surrogacy.

We accept that a committee has been established that will deal with this at some point but there is a logic to a single piece of legislation to cover it. Many stated that there is obviously a difficulty in that there is no element of retrospection regarding those people who have already been born through this process and ensuring their identity rights are dealt with. We know the huge difficulties for people perhaps not being able get their entitlements, the difficulties in terms of where the law stands if the father was to die or if there was marital break-up and all the rest. I get that from a human perspective, it is an incredibly complicated situation.

For people who go for IVF or surrogacy, there is a real want and need to have their own children but there are difficulties. It is hugely difficult, not only from a financial point of view. A huge number of people cannot even look at this because they do not have the resources, which is obviously an unfairness and inequality that cannot stand. We need to make sure there is public provision. We are talking about IVF cycles and figures are being thrown around of somewhere between €4,000 and €6,000. That would obviously put a huge amount of people out of the bracket of being to avail of this and that is not okay in any way, shape or form.

On the whole idea of international surrogacy, the initial period of the Ukrainian crisis threw up this particular issue with regard to Irish families that went out there. That once again points out the scenario that this is a reality we need to deal with and for which we need to legislate. As per normal, we have been pretty slow to deal with it. There is no point in being too downbeat in the sense that we are finally arriving at a starting point. It is only a starting point, however. Like I said, we have to do a significant amount of work to ensure we cover all the bases.

I will add my voice to many others before who said that if we are looking at IVF, there must be provision within the public health system. It is absolutely unfair that this is only a resource that can be availed of by those who have the means to do so. That is not to take away from the huge emotional difficulties that face anybody in these particular situations. I accept the difficulties in dealing with retrospective laws and so forth but it is not beyond the possibility of Government and this House to deliver solutions. We know what the problems are. We know a significant amount of work will have to be done on Committee Stage. It is only right that we ensure we have a just system that works for all the people, both those who have been through IVF and surrogacy and those who will go through this system. It also means we must deal with domestic and international surrogacy in the same legislation.

This is, therefore, a good start, or it is a reasonable start. One can be quite uncomfortable with some of it and particularly the for-profit scenario. I can see why people who have the resources do it but it is not available to everybody and that is the piece we must close off, if we are really talking about having a just and equitable society.

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