Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Being honest, as mine is not the lead Department, I cannot give the Deputy a specific timeframe. I will speak to the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, and get back to her directly to give her an indication on times. Following the publication of the proposals in December, I was contacted by groups such as LGBT Ireland. It had flagged some concerns, particularly for same-sex female couples and how it felt some of the elements did not cover them. I have raised that with both the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and that is also being looked at in the context. We all appreciate, both for prospective families who want to use surrogacy or other techniques under assisted reproduction, and for retrospective situations, time is really of the essence. We absolutely understand this. However, this is deeply complex and it is fair to recognise that as well. It is very complex legislation which is establishing new and breaking existing relationships in terms of who gave birth. We have to be careful there but everyone is very cognisant of the need to act rapidly to provide those protections for situations where those protections for children and for parents do not currently exist.

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