Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There is no doubting the Minister of State's strong work ethic and I thank her for taking this matter. In early July, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on International Surrogacy published a report that was very well received by the three Ministers to whom it was relevant, namely, the Minister for Health, who is the lead Minister on the issue, and the Ministers for Justice and Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. They made recommendations that can be broadly put into two categories, the first of which was the ethical future of international surrogacy and the need for legislation in the State, and a framework was suggested for that. The second related to a retrospective provision for children who have been born via surrogacy, or for those who are on the way via surrogacy, to ensure there will be a legal relationship between those children and both of their parents.

Surrogacy has a long history of various entities telling the State that we need to take action on it, from as long ago as when the Taoiseach was Minister for Health in 2005, when the Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction recommended that we legislate for surrogacy. Numerous court decisions, including of the Supreme Court, have found that the State needs to legislate in this area. In 2012, the then Minister for Justice and Equality, Alan Shatter, issued guidelines for international surrogacy, not least because of the citizenship element of it. In 2017, the assisted human reproduction Bill underwent pre-legislative scrutiny, out of which a recommendation was made to legislate for international surrogacy. The Conor O'Mahony report on the child protection implications of international surrogacy was published in 2021, after which the Oireachtas joint committee commenced its work on a tight timeline because its members were conscious that the Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Bill had gone to the Dáil, where it is now awaiting Committee Stage under the Department of Health.

Well over one thousand children do not have a legal relationship with both of their parents, be that a second father or, in the main, women who do not have a legal relationship with their own child. That leaves them in a precarious position whereby if the father of the child, who needs to be the biological father, becomes seriously ill and perhaps faces death, the child will be left with no legal parent in the State. There are cases before the courts seeking clarification and, bizarrely, the State is defending those cases and paying legal bills for discovery at a time when there are numerous reports stating that we need to legislate for surrogacy.

There are situations of marriage breakdown. In the past couple of weeks in particular, I have had sight of solicitors' letters from the father of children to the mother reminding her that she has no legal standing and that if she relinquishes the claim on their family home, she may be given access to her children. Children are being weaponised because of the State's failure to legislate for surrogacy and for children born via surrogacy.

We need equality for these children. Regardless of the means of their conception and birth, they should have equality and a right to a legal relationship with both parents before the State. We were led to believe that amendments were to be brought in on Committee Stage of the health Bill that would address this. I appreciate that both the Departments of Health and Justice need to act on this, but we need action and we need to know a programme will come in such that before Christmas, the legislation could be passed by both Houses of the Oireachtas.