Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Second, Senator Mullen, without any irony, is setting himself up today as a defender of women’s rights. He is no champion of women’s rights. He has sought for years to control women. He has sought to control them through the Constitution, he has sought to control them through legislation, and he sought to control them through dogma. He has an obsession with controlling their reproductive health and people’s sexuality. He contends you cannot get married if you are a gay man or woman. Apparently, you should not be allowed to try to be a single father, for some reason. The Senator is no champion of women’s rights.

The third point I want to make is on the amendment. The Senator asks why we would not confine surrogacy to the EU. What is he trying to achieve? Is he trying to say those with an income below a certain level should not be allowed to be involved in surrogacy? There are poor people in Ireland, all across the EU and all across the rest of the world. What about Canada? No? America? No? What about the UK? The UK is not in the EU. The Senator has a big problem with Ukraine being allowed. Ukraine is going to join the EU, so I put it to the Senator that my short answer was a polite version of saying his proposal is nonsensical. Yes, we need to protect surrogates all over the world and, yes, this is a conservative Bill, so we have not done something that lacks any decent rationale or consideration, which is what the Senator is proposing in saying surrogacy should be within the EU. He is saying a country that has left the EU should not be included and that we do not want surrogacy in a country coming into the EU, but that we will allow it for those in the EU. We are not doing anything like that; what we are doing is setting up a regulatory authority that will, on a country-by-country basis and within countries on a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction basis, and on the basis of every single application for surrogacy by an intending parent or parents, go through all the safeguards to ensure surrogacy is safe and that the very genuine concerns raised regarding exploitation around the world are addressed. We are not doing this according to some bizarre geopolitical line on a map but in a considered, legally robust way, jurisdiction by jurisdiction and case by case. That is why I am not accepting the Senator’s amendments. In his response, he should apologise to the people in the Gallery.