Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senators for submitting these amendments. However, all three amendments appear to relate to surrogacy whereas the relevant sections each proposes to amend are not primarily or at all concerned with surrogacy. Maybe the intention was to insert them in a different part of the Bill.

Amendment No. 5 seeks to amend section 20, which is concerned with the consent of donors of gametes for use by others in any donor-assisted human reproduction procedure, not just a surrogacy agreement.

Amendment No. 6 seeks to amend section 37, which is concerned with the screening of donors of gametes or embryos for use by others in a donor-assisted human reproduction procedure.

Amendment No. 8 seeks to amend section 43, which is concerned with posthumous assisted human reproduction, something that is not permitted to be provided as part of a surrogacy agreement under this Bill.

In any event, donors of gametes for use in any assisted human reproduction procedure or in any surrogacy agreement must consent to not having any parental rights or responsibilities in respect of any child born with the use of their donation. Therefore, there is no question of a donor entering into a “legally binding commitment to care for a child”. Furthermore, this is in line with the current approach in Ireland, as per the provisions of the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015, which was commenced in May 2020. Accordingly, I will not be accepting these three amendments.