Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to hear the Minister hopes the Bill will be signed off before the summer recess. That is what we all hope for.

The AHR Bill was at pre-legislative stage in 2017, so it preceded the Joint Committee on International Surrogacy by five years. I do not think the Minister’s was intending to suggest otherwise but surrogacy certainly did not cause the delay to the AHR Bill. I want to make that clear.

I am really anxious for parents who are waiting on the retrospective element of this. I had asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if there was a way to deal with retrospection now given that we know we are bringing in this legislation. I am delighted to hear that the Government has taken on the recommendations of the Joint Committee on International Surrogacy because it worked very hard and its recommendations were excellent. That was good news and there was a great day in December but we are now at the end of April. The Minister stated he hoped the Bill will be passed before the summer recess. I hope it will be pushed by the Government and we will have it before the summer recess.

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