Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The two amendments seek to remove the provision in the current text of the Bill that would allow for a surrogate mother to consent to a child born as a result of surrogacy to live with the intending parents. We had a long debate about this on Committee Stage and we have given it serious consideration. However, the provision in the Bill is an important one, taken in conjunction with the amendment of the Guardianship of Infants Act. That was already agreed by the select committee and that provides for a clear process to enable intending parents to an effective custody of the child and to carry out the duties of guardianship in the immediate post-birth period. As we discussed on Committee Stage, I am not convinced there is a perfectly right answer to this. It is a difficult situation where there are intending parents, a surrogate mother who has just given birth, a baby moving to the intending parents and then there is a question around rights in that period between the birth, guardianship and full parental orders. Again, I acknowledge that these amendments are proposed with the very best of intentions. I examined this it in detail and while there is no perfect way to address the transfer of a child from a surrogate to guardians to intending parents, the current situation represents an established process that is working well so far. It is working under the guardianship Act. It is used in our maternity hospitals on a regular basis with guardians and, therefore, we are intending to proceed with that. Then again, this may be something that could be looked at as part of the three-year review.

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