Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Chairman. I will do so. While I absolutely welcome these much-needed and long-awaited changes, the legal underpinning of familial rights and their recognition, validation and realisation, I accept the legislation is not perfect, which is why I wanted to speak to the amendment. The Bill is not perfect - I do not think any legislation is - but in this instance, as the Minister noted in his response, time is of the essence to families, as it is to families who are beginning on their surrogacy journey. That is why we need to ensure the legislation will be kept under review and updated, as the amendment and other amendments have provided for, as science, technology, international agreements, best practice and modernisation develop, and I welcome the Minister's commitment to addressing certain issues, which we have talked about in the context of debates on recent amendments in particular, through robust and legal provisions in an amending Bill.

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