Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senators for their support and co-operation in getting us here so quickly. On a personal level, I find it very difficult to disagree with anything Senators have put forward or any of the comments they have made, but we are dealing with the Civil Registration Bill. While I very much accept the intentions of Senator Norris, as well as his bona fides, sincerity, interest and passion, and understand fully why he wants to address the issues dealt with in his amendments, I am trying to fix one situation while recognising there are genuinely lots of others that have to be fixed. The only reason the amendment is in order is we changed the Long Title of the Bill to fix an anomaly in the Child and Family Relationships (Amendment) Bill. Intrinsically, this is the Civil Registration Bill. The issues raised by Senators are so complex and their comments are so heartfelt because they are based on the lived lives of people we know or who have made themselves known to us and about whom we care.

I know that the Bill is not perfect, but I do not want perfection to trump fairness. We are trying to be fair to the people whose situation we can fix today. We are trying to address their lived life experiences and I genuinely do not think we should make them wait any longer. I know that the Child and Family Relationships (Amendment) Bill will not commence until June and I will hold others to that date, but what Senators are asking me to do today is to entertain changes that would have to be reflected on for months, if not years, because they are so complex. That is not something those of us who are in the Seanad today are going to do. Having recognised their bona fides, I ask Senators to withdraw the amendments rather than push them to a vote. I invite Senator Norris and anyone else who is interested to meet the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, and his officials to discuss the assisted human reproduction Bill to make it what we all want it to be. Such a meeting can be arranged in the coming days or weeks. The Minister will be very happy to hear from Senators and try to accommodate and facilitate them in arriving at a legal basis to provide legal status for the people who were described so eloquently by Senators in their testimonies.

I turn to the specific amendments related to the provisions of the Child and Family Relationships Act that do not incorporate artificial insemination procedures carried out in any setting outside the donor assisted human reproduction facility. A number of decisions were reached by the European Court of Human Rights, ECHR, that referenced the importance of biological parentage as a component of one's identity. Genuinely, as it has been presented today, it would not be possible in the case of children born as a result of donor assisted home conception, for want of a better term, to have their right to information on their origins vindicated, as defined by the ECHR, without adequately addressing the issues that would be raised in the context of the Senator's suggestion. Retrospective declaration of parenthood, as provided for in Part 2, section 20 of the Act of 2015, only applies to children born as a result of donor-assisted human reproduction procedures for which the donor was and remains unknown to the mother. The legal advice provided to the Department of Justice and Equality during the drafting of that Bill in 2015 stated that where the parental rights are vested in a known individual, both that individual and the child have rights accruing from that connection. Removal of those rights in the context proposed would be inappropriate. That is why I believe - I am asking Senators to consider this - that the general scheme of the assisted human reproduction Bill is the most appropriate forum to genuinely examine and find a proper solution that vindicates all the rights of parents in all of the guises that present as well as the rights and best interests of the children. That is the best way to find solutions to the lived experiences of the people Senator Norris has described today.

The joint committee intends to report on the general scheme of the Bill before the summer. I will genuinely take it upon myself to arrange a meeting. I would encourage every Senator to sit in front of the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, and the officials and to describe as eloquently as they have done here the real-life experience and disenfranchisement that arises for families and children in particular.

The main priority of the Bill before us today is to provide a register of donor-assisted births that make it possible for both partners, who happen to be female in this case, to be registered as parents. Perhaps Senators are receiving the same almost-daily text messages and tweets that I get from parents who are waiting. If I had to tell them after today that we had to postpone the passing of this Bill to deal with all the other pressing issues, I think it would break my heart as well as breaking their hearts. I am asking Senator Norris sincerely to consider all the really important issues he has presented today but to address them in a medium where they can be addressed. We need to look at the complexity of all of the issues that pertain to each of the individual amendments that Senator Norris has tabled today. They would be better placed in the confines of a Bill where they would probably be most appropriately addressed.