Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important topic. I am pleased to join colleagues in contributing to this important debate. I get a real sense of our reaching an important milestone on a long and winding road. I thank all the Members involved in the excellent work of the joint committee and especially my constituency colleague, Deputy Whitmore, for chairing it. This place often comes in for criticism, but that committee work is an example of this place at its best and I wanted to acknowledge that this evening.

I am particularly pleased to see so many friends and familiar faces joining us in the Gallery this evening. They are people I had the opportunity of meeting during a long journey in my time as Minister for Health and ever since. On a cross-party basis, and most importantly together with parents, we have worked together to reach this critical point. When I first met a number of the people in the Gallery this evening, we were working to commence all Parts of the Children and Family Relationships Act. We did that, but what became clear as we did so was it was not going to be enough. If we wanted to get to an Ireland where every child was equal, every parent was equal and every family was equal, there was a need to do much more and go much further. We took the decision together to appoint Professor Conor O'Mahony, who was then the Special Rapporteur for Children. He did an excellent piece of work that has been acknowledged in the House this evening. It laid the foundations the committee built on and helped it tease through the issues and get us to this point.

We have come so far. I am aware that as parents and prospective parents, people feel tantalisingly close to getting to where we need to get to. We now need to finish the journey. We need to act and we will. We have all the research we need and more than enough reports. It is time to get on with it, and what people very clearly heard from my colleague, the Minister for Health, is his absolute commitment, which I echo, to do everything humanly and physically possible to get this legislation passed as an absolute matter of urgency.

On some aspects of particular relevance to the Department of Justice, I am aware the citizenship rights of children born through international surrogacy are an issue of concern to intending parents. The intention is the AHR Bill will include amendments to the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956. These amendments will make clear provision for citizenship of children born through surrogacy to Irish citizens as intending parents where parental orders under the AHR Bill have been granted by the Irish courts. The new provisions will be very welcome in making real progress in this as well. On guardianship of children born as a result of surrogacy both domestic and international, the intention is also that the AHR Bill will bring forward amendments to the Guardianship of Infants Act 1964 in respect of the guardianship of children born through surrogacy both before and after an application is made to the court for a parental order. Provision will be made to enable the intending parents to be appointed as the child's guardians alongside the surrogate mother for the period when the child is living with the intending parents before the court has dealt with an application for a parental order. Provision will also be made for the guardianship of children born as a result of the surrogacy agreement following the granting of a parental order by the courts.

I hope it is clear the Government, the Opposition, the Dáil, the Seanad - that this Oireachtas - is beyond determined to step up to support people and finish the job. I pay particular tribute to my colleague and friend, Senator Seery Kearney, who has championed this cause from the beginning. Sometimes it can make a real difference when somebody with lived experience gets into this place. I commend the Senator on all her work with so many other colleagues. I assure her I will continue, along with colleagues, to walk every step of the way with her. I am proud of how far we come, but I feel a sense this evening of a resolve to finish the job. Let us do it for children, for parents, for families and to take another step towards a more equal Ireland.

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