Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleague, Senator Ardagh, for introducing this matter and we intend to work together on a Bill to address the present failings.

I wish everybody a very happy St. Brigid's Day. It is very fitting that today is her day because she was the saint of fertility. In her time she helped women who could not conceive and that is almost 1,500 years ago.

The World Health Organization is very clear that infertility is a disease and should be treated as such with absolute support. We all know people who have gone through the grief and heartbreak of trying but being unable to start their own family. In Ireland, people who cannot conceive naturally get very little or no support within the public health system. Those in need of IVF and other fertility programmes find themselves having to pay between €6,000 and €10,000 per cycle. At the moment, fertility drugs are only covered by the drugs payment scheme or a medical card and private patients can claim tax relief but that is it, and it is just for fertility drugs. The State absolutely needs to help with costs and medically in order that there is a continuity of care.

As my colleague has said, in 2017 the then Government approved a Bill that laid out regulations and a need for the establishment of a regulatory body. Then, in 2019, more details on a model of care were given but nothing has happened since. I acknowledge that the Minister for Health confirmed additional funding, supports and the opening of fertility hubs in budget 2021. We need a functional and fair State sponsored system that supports infertility and to be able to determine criteria and eligibility. I hope that he can achieve what his predecessor did not.