Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank colleagues for their time and input. Rather than giving a pre-written speech I might respond to the Senators who are present on the issues they have raised. I might engage with Senator Warfield further on the transgender issue. If there are barriers to access that should not be there, then we need to know about them and to identify them. I am open to discussing that with the Senator.He and I could meet and the Senator could write a note on the issue. If progress can be made, let us make it.

We are on track with regard to free contraception. I always say that with my fingers crossed slightly because healthcare is complex, as is rolling out things that have never been done before in Ireland. It is a priority and we are on track. It does not mean everything will work perfectly in August but we have negotiations ongoing with the IMO, which is very involved, as are the pharmacists and, to a lesser extent, hospital providers. Most of this will be led by GPs and pharmacists so that is where the main discussions are and they are progressing.

Several colleagues asked about assisted human reproduction. The Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Bill was not originally envisaged to include international surrogacy, as colleagues will be aware, and it would have been law by now if we had not stopped it. It has been years in the making, as several colleagues said, and is urgently required, regardless of international surrogacy, for people in Ireland. We need to regulate this sector domestically. The assisted human reproduction legislation, which is on Committee Stage, has been paused. I was asked to stop it for several months and have done so but I am keen that we get going with that Bill quickly.

We agreed to a 12-week pause while a special committee was established to look at international surrogacy. That work is going well and there have been many positive contributions to the committee. There have also been contributions to the effect that we have to take our international human rights obligations deadly seriously. Few countries in the western world facilitate international surrogacy and we understand why. It is because it is complex, not just in respect of what happens in our country but also what happens abroad. It is a complex ethical space and we are balancing all manner of international human rights obligations and obligations to people living here. I hear clearly the calls from colleagues around retrospectivity.

We cannot indefinitely pause the Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Bill. We will see where that process is at. It was agreed there would be amendments ready to go within 12 weeks. We need to address the matter domestically and internationally. If that can be accommodated within the current Bill, it will be. However, we cannot indefinitely postpone the Bill while we wait for an amendment. Amending legislation can be brought at any time. We can pass a Bill and make it an Act, amend that Act, bring in a different Act or amend on Committee Stage. It is in the hands of the committee as to where that goes.