Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the launch of the report of the Joint Committee on International Surrogacy. Equality for all of our children, regardless of the manner of their birth, is something I have championed and I am very grateful for the extremely hard work of the committee, with cross-party support, that achieved an outcome that relies on two strands. First, for all future surrogacies, parents intending to pursue international surrogacy must receive a certification to proceed from the Assisted Human Reproduction Regulatory Authority in order to apply for a parental order. This requires preconception proofs that ensure the well-being and safeguarding of the surrogate, the children and the parents. The international feedback today is that the framework suggested for Ireland could go on to form the foundation of a future international convention because it relies so much on the Verona Principles.

The second strand contains retrospective provisions for children already born by surrogacy to ensure they have the protections of the full legal relationship with both of their parents in accordance with their rights under the European Convention on Human Rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The report is an extraordinary piece of work that honours the concerns that arise from international surrogacy, and overcomes them, and now needs to be become part of the assisted human reproduction legislation. I thank the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, and the Tánaiste for welcoming it.

Yesterday, something very sinister happened on the floor of this House. Members enjoy privilege and they also have the benefit of confidentiality in private meetings.Those are essential elements in the furthering of our democracy. Yesterday we saw the playing of the man and not the ball, the man being the Joint Committee on International Surrogacy. To put it kindly, inaccuracies were put on the record of this House by someone who is not even a member of the committee and was not there for the private meetings in an attempt to characterise the committee in a completely untruthful matter in order to undermine the excellent report and cross-party workings of the committee. There was an attempt to characterise one member of the committee as being a victim.

I will refer to something that occurred in public yesterday, which I can refer to and which does not breach any confidentiality in this House. There was a room full of witnesses at the committee, including women who have overcome serious illnesses, who live with cystic fibrosis, who have overcome cancer and who have experienced miscarriage and infant loss, and men who have experienced a lifetime of discrimination because of their sexual orientation. They all love and adore their children and have testified in many forums in this country about how much they honour the precious women who gave birth to their children. Those people who have overcome grief, loss and discrimination were termed as "purchasers" in an attempt to bring shame on them, to stigmatise them and to stigmatise Irish children, citizens and members of this Republic. That is what happened in public. I want Senators to consider for a moment what might have gone on in private and then tell me who the bully and the victim are.