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

I am absolutely delighted to get the chance to speak on this. I welcome all of the advocates and remind them that today is one of their days and that we are here because of them and because of the work they do. There should be no mistake about that. We are here because of the pressure they, as parents, put on in standing up for their children and because of the help of Senator Seery Kearney, who has guided us all and continues to do so. She is my go-to person whenever I have a question on surrogacy. I note that there is a strong Kilkenny contingent here to balance out the Wicklow group.

I really welcome this report. In the seven years I have been a Deputy, this is one of the key things I have been involved in. It is one of the really good things. This is why we get involved in politics. We want to see legislation change to a positive end. We have such an opportunity here now. There are 32 excellent recommendations. If there are question marks over anything, we have a recommendation to answer the question. The Minister said that he is accepting or partially accepting 30 of the 32. I would like to know which two are not being accepted and which ones are being partially accepted. I appreciate the Minister might not be able to answer that today. For any of the question marks over compensation or reasonable expenses, we have a recommendation. Recommendation 13 deals with that issue. It is the same for retrospection. As the Minister will know because I raised it with him only last week, that is a key issue and we need to see movement on it fast. In fairness, last week, the Minister confirmed that was his intention and that he did not want to see people having to wait for an agency. Again, I mention Brian and Kathy Egan. Brian is with us today. They really have done us a great service by telling their story, as have all of the parents. Their situation was particularly difficult, however.

There are some concerns regarding the countries to be involved. Everybody involved with this wants to see the highest standards. All of the parents and everybody sitting up in the Gallery want to see the highest standards. That is why we are all here. We would like a common-sense approach and for this to be looked at in a way that is not too restrictive with regard to the countries, reasonable expenses and the courts system for retrospection. If it has to be the High Court that is involved, can we create a system whereby the payment is different or in which there is an avenue that does not involve payment? Could it be the District Court or the Circuit Court? Can we look at that? Being open-minded and listening to the experts, the stakeholders and parents is what has brought us this far and we need to continue to do that.

I also pay tribute to Deputy Whitmore. She was a fantastic Chair. She had a really difficult task. For 12 weeks, she kept us all in line. She listened to everybody's views and was incredibly fair. We owe her a great debt of gratitude. I know other people want to speak so I will not take up too much time. It is great that we are having this debate and that so many Ministers have attended but we will continue to raise this issue and to lobby the Joint Committee on Health for a slot to ensure this passes. It is great that there is such cross-party support. It does not always happen that there is such cross-party support, so we need to grab this and take it forward.

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