Results 1,261-1,280 of 2,078 for speaker:Mary Seery Kearney

Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy: Surrogacy in Ireland and in Irish and International Law: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: It would be important not to conflate adoption in its traditional sense and understanding with surrogacy in the minds of the public. Adoption in this context is merely a mechanism to recognise parentage in the same way as other family law mechanisms could be employed.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy: Surrogacy in Ireland and in Irish and International Law: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: Absolutely. I thank Dr. Mulligan.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy: Surrogacy in Ireland and in Irish and International Law: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I have just one point, which is not related to international surrogacy although it is aligned to it. This is the issue of reciprocal IVF in same-sex female couples. An anomaly has arisen either from the Child and Family Relationships Act or from a situation that is not addressed in the AHR Bill. While this is not surrogacy either, it is analogous to it. The situation in law at the moment...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy: Surrogacy in Ireland and in Irish and International Law: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy: Surrogacy in Ireland and in Irish and International Law: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: It is the foreign birth element that is at issue, as well as access to the foreign birth register. I know that Dr. Lydia Bracken has written on this.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy: Surrogacy in Ireland and in Irish and International Law: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I thank Dr. Mulligan.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy: Surrogacy in Ireland and in Irish and International Law: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: Dr. Wingfield's comments and starting contribution are incredibly honouring of couples, particularly women, going through fertility. Her reply to Deputy Funchion also honours that. There is a feeling in circles that there is a presumption of mala fides on the part of couples who engage in surrogacy. To hear Dr. Wingfield point out almost a bias in the proposed legislation is refreshing and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy: Surrogacy in Ireland and in Irish and International Law: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: There could be requirements or criteria that we could put in around that as part of the recognition of parentage process in Ireland for a child who is born by a surrogacy abroad, such as an age limit and a cap on the number of surrogacies that an individual can engage in, and we could put a threshold similar to what is already in the Bill on domestic surrogacy.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy: Surrogacy in Ireland and in Irish and International Law: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: We have a reality of Canada being considered a compensated surrogacy regime, and yet the payments to the surrogate mother in Canada are vastly in excess of those that are paid in normal times to surrogate mothers in Ukraine, for instance. There is that disparity in economic well-being of the country and how far a euro will go in either country. There should be some sort of a recognition in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy: Surrogacy in Ireland and in Irish and International Law: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: -----and could be prescribed for. I just want to come back to the funding. Dr. Wingfield raised legitimate points of who gets funding that are very important for consideration. Certainly, in the surrogacy sphere, there are people pretty much mortgaging their futures, pensions and their possibility of buying houses. There is a misunderstanding that people who engage in surrogacy are...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy: Surrogacy in Ireland and in Irish and International Law: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I would reiterate a point that the Chair made. It is important to note that people are engaging in egg collection now. A number of years from now, or once the AHR legislation comes through, where do they stand with regard to engaging with in international surrogacy? This is an important point and it underlines to the committee the need.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy: Surrogacy in Ireland and in Irish and International Law: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: To go back to Dr. Wingfield’s experience of shipping abroad and seeing paperwork coming back from different clinics, this is not just a case of working with countries, but working with clinics. The experience of the advocacy groups, and one in particular, is that a clinic can be fine for a while but there can be a change in personnel and then suddenly the clinic is not fine and does...

Seanad: Safe Access to Termination of Pregnancy Services Bill 2021: Report and Final Stages (7 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: Senator Moynihan would be finished with what she had to say.

Seanad: Safe Access to Termination of Pregnancy Services Bill 2021: Report and Final Stages (7 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I commend the Bill. I welcome the people in the Visitors Gallery and I thank them for all the hard work they have done on this issue. This amendment is fanciful and deliberately tabled to allow access to people within a building and within the proximity of a clinic. It is laughable, if it was not so serious and the sinister reasoning behind it was not so serious. Anyone with a basic...

Seanad: Safe Access to Termination of Pregnancy Services Bill 2021: Report and Final Stages (7 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I rise to voice my opposition to both these amendments. The fact is no constitutional right is unlimited. They are all balanced against the rights of others. There is also a constitutional provision that we are allowed to regulate for the termination of pregnancy. That is also a constitutional right that we have been attempting to facilitate and it has been thwarted by people who feel it...

Seanad: Safe Access to Termination of Pregnancy Services Bill 2021: Report and Final Stages (7 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: It would not have the two elements of a criminal offence.

Seanad: Safe Access to Termination of Pregnancy Services Bill 2021: Report and Final Stages (7 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: Pot and kettle.

Seanad: Safe Access to Termination of Pregnancy Services Bill 2021: Report and Final Stages (7 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I want to commend Senators Moynihan and Gavan and the activists on bringing this Bill forward and for the fact that we are at a place where we are able to have this debate. People have different opinions on abortion and no one denies that. It is reasonable that people take their own personal views on it and there is no objection to that. However, feeling entitled because of one's personal...

Seanad: Safe Access to Termination of Pregnancy Services Bill 2021: Report and Final Stages (7 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: It is a European Union report.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy: Election of Leas-Chathaoirleach (7 Apr 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I nominate Deputy Emer Higgins.