Results 10,501-10,520 of 20,459 for speaker:Frances Fitzgerald

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: We discussed this issue in the Dáil when Sinn Féin submitted this amendment. It would remove the requirement that a donor assisted human reproduction procedure would be carried out by a registered medical practitioner or by a registered nurse. The aim appears to be that the parentage of a child born through a non-clinical procedure, such as self-insemination, would be recognised...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: This amendment requires an assessment in advance of the best interests and welfare of a child to be born. In current practice, this is a matter for clinics in the dealing with patients. There are wide implications for assisted human reproduction, AHR, more generally, which is why I have not made explicit provision in the Bill. This provision has implications for access to all forms of...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: Clearly, the move to identifiable donations is an important aspect of a more regulated approach to this matter and deals with some of the issues that have been raised. This amendment requires a maximum limit on births through donor gametes from an individual donor.

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: I was speaking about the amendment when I said that it proposes a maximum limit on births through donor gametes from an individual donor. This is another issue that will be dealt with in the broader assisted human reproduction legislation. I can inform the House that the Minister for Health will be imposing limits on the maximum number of births. I understand the limit will be set out not...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: It is the case because it is more appropriately dealt with by the Department of Health. As I outlined earlier to the House, assisted human reproduction and indeed donor-assisted human reproduction encompass a range of broad issues and need to be dealt with. We have mentioned many of those issues here today. It is clear from the work of the 2005 commission that this significant legislation...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: We are dealing with aspects of parentage. As I keep saying, we are not dealing with the broader issues. The legislation will dovetail together. There is a transition period as well. The consents and the regulations are appropriately dealt with by the Department of Health and will be dealt with by that Department. This is the first time any Government has attempted to deal with this...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: I was asked about the limit. I said that the limit is expected to be three donor families.

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: No. Three donor families. I will repeat what I said.The limit will be set out not in terms of the number of births but of the number of recipients who may receive donations from each donor. It is three.

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: Yes. I am using "family" in the broadest sense.

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: No.

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: I understand the Senator's intention is that the donor details will not be recorded on the donor register in this case. I should clarify that this is not the intention and that regulations for the operation of Parts 2 and 3 will help to clarify this. In regard to embryos already in existence, I assure the Senator that there is no question of lifting the veil of anonymity. However, it is...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: In my view, going so far as to ban referrals at this stage is a step too far. That is aside from the fact that the prohibition in this amendment is so phrased that if intending parents are referred to a facility that provides anonymous gamete services - and we must remember that many of them provide anonymous and non-anonymous services, which is another factor - the operator will commit an...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: This amendment would limit the information being provided to the Minister for Health for the performance of his functions in managing the national donor-conceived person register. Obviously, this function will become the function of the authority, when established. It is only in the interim that the Minister for Health would have responsibility in this regard. I understand the...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: This amendment would create a specific offence of a DAHR operator’s failure to comply with its obligations under section 28 to keep and retain certain records. The Senators’ desire is to ensure that there are direct and serious consequences of such a failure, which is entirely understandable. However, section 28 provides remedies for failure to comply. These are to be found...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: The consequences are that the clinic can be closed down if it is not effectively doing what it is meant to do under the various sections. That will have huge consequences.

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: No, I think I have made the point.

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: Amendment No. 41 is about the identity rights of the child, and I fully understand the principle behind the amendment. I had originally intended to establish a voluntary register on a statutory basis. I reconsidered this after extensive discussion with other Departments and having examined the effect of putting the register on a statutory basis. In reviewing the position, I took into...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: Amendments Nos. 43, 44 and 46, are intended to ensure that a donor-conceived child can access information about a donor from the age of 16. This would reflect an evolving view of the ability of older minors to make important decisions in their own right. I can understand why the Senator has tabled this amendment because this is an evolving issue and there are different views about the...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: We had some discussion on this issue earlier and I indicated that the retention of medical information relating to donors would be dealt with in a Department of Health Bill in due course. That Bill will also set out the rules under which the Minister for Health may be asked to contact a donor or a donor-conceived child or provide for the authority, when developed, to do that in the unlikely...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (26 Mar 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: This provision must be seen against the other provisions in the Bill where there is a clear and strong presumption in favour of release. As I stated, I was advised by the Attorney General that I needed to include a provision here that would allow for exceptional circumstances. I included the well-being of the child, but I took that out because we had a discussion about that on Committee...