Averil Power (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 11, to delete lines 10 to 18 and substitute the following:

" "DAHR procedure" means a donor-assisted human reproduction procedure, being any procedure performed in a Member State of the European Union including the State, with the objective of it resulting in the implantation of an embryo in the womb of the woman on whose request the procedure is performed, where -(a) one of the gametes from which the embryo has been or will be formed has been provided by a donor,

(b) each gamete from which the embryo has been or will be formed has been provided by a donor, or

(c) the embryo has been provided by a donor, provided that, where the procedure is performed in a Member State of the European Union other than the State -(i) the person who performed the procedure was authorised to do so under the law of the place where the procedure was performed,

(ii) the person who performed the procedure and the facility in which the procedure was performed was, at the time of the procedure, fully compliant with the requirements of Directive 2004/23/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 on setting standards of quality and safety for the donation, procurement, testing, processing, preservation, storage and distribution of human tissues and cells, and

(iii) the person who performed the procedure and the facility in which the procedure was performed has fully complied with all relevant requirements of this Part and of Part 3, as if the procedure was performed in the State;".

This amendment is designed to ensure that DAHR procedures carried out in other Europe Union member states would qualify for the purposes of the Bill and the parentage provisions and all the same requirements for information, consent, criteria for the clinics and so on would apply. It is to address a concern raised with me that the Bill is too restrictive in only allowing people to have procedures carried out in the Republic of Ireland. For example, it would preclude people from accessing services just up the road in Northern Ireland. It also potentially could fall foul of EU law in terms of being anti-competitive without good reason.

It would be fair enough if we were concerned that the same standards could not be applied abroad and that is why I have restricted the amendment to other European Union member states. Where clinics in other EU member states can satisfy all of the provisions of the Bill and collect all the required data, including the consent, and ensure that exactly same procedures are in place, then people should be free to use those facilities. That is basically from where the amendment is coming and I would appreciate the Minister's response.