Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I apologise. The Minister may take what I have said already as read.

Amendment No. 43 refers to where the operator of a DAHR facility commits an offence. I spoke on this issue on Committee Stage. Basically, the amendment would establish that it is an offence to facilitate an arrangement involving anonymous gamete donation services from outside the State. As I said on Committee Stage, the amendment evokes certain provisions of the abortion information legislation of 1995 and would provide that it is an offence to make or permit to be made an appointment or any other arrangement for or on behalf of an intending parent or parents with a person or facility that provides anonymous gamete donation services outside the State. Again, the question must be asked as to whether we are serious about preventing the generation of children in circumstances where they will never know who their genetic parents are. If we are, we will ensure the strongest measures are in place to prevent any facilitation of that, which would clearly be intended to get around the provisions of the law of this country.