Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his ongoing advocacy in getting the Bill across the line as quickly as possible. The Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Bill 2022 passed Second Stage in the Dáil in March, as he will be aware, and was referred to the Oireachtas Select Committee on Health for Committee Stage. The legislation encompasses the regulation, for the first time in this country, of a wide range of assisted human reproduction, AHR, practices. It is important legislation. The published Bill provides for domestic altruistic surrogacy, but not the regulation of surrogacy arrangements undertaken in other jurisdictions. However, we have the report of the Special Oireachtas Joint Committee on International Surrogacy. The Ministers for Justice, and Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and I met immediately after that committee provided its report, and we asked our officials to come back to us as a matter of urgency with options and draft legislation on the recommendations. What I want to do is to have a comprehensive set of amendments for Committee Stage that reflect the surrogacy recommendations insofar as Government decides on those. I would like it to be done by the end of the year. That is what we are trying to achieve. There is ongoing engagement at ministerial and departmental level on that. As the Deputy will be aware, besides the surrogacy amendments, the Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Bill is important in and of itself. I want that Bill through all Stages in this Dáil session. There are many reasons for that, one of which is IVF. We will move to the provision of publicly-funded IVF for the first time next year. I am talking to our own HSE fertility clinics about hiring the new staff to provide all of those new services. To do that, the sector must be regulated. I want the Bill through all Stages in this session, of which there are probably eight weeks left. I would also like as broad an inclusion of the surrogacy recommendations on Committee Stage as possible.

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