Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

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 in terms of the number of births, but in terms of the number of recipients who may receive donations from each donor. These limits will be set in due course. I think they will be quite low, as this amendment suggests. When Senator Walsh spoke on this amendment, he suggested that the limits should be low. The Minister for Health and I agree with that. The limits will be set under the new assisted human reproduction legislation. When the Minister brought this scheme to the Cabinet, the limits were part of the proposals for the scheme. The limits will be set in due course. They are not appropriate to this Bill because they do not relate directly to assignment of parentage. I reiterate that a transition period is envisaged in relation to the provisions that are being introduced under this Bill, where they will dovetail with the new assisted human reproduction Bill.