Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Senator Ruane made the point that there may be people who are carrying offences, such as a minor drugs possession charge from years ago. She made the point that there could be prejudicial assessment against people from lower-income families or communities. That is exactly why we are giving the regulatory authority the powers to assess on a case-by-case basis but they are assessing based on criteria specified in law, in statutory instrument by the Minister, and the Minister must make those regulations in accordance with the paramount consideration being the safety of the child. Therefore there are layers of protections in place and I believe they are in place regardless of household income.

Senator Ruane also made a very fair point around access to fertility. There has been a lot of talk around surrogacy being provided in lower-income countries. Senator Ruane flipped that on its head and asked about lower-income men or women who want to avail of surrogacy or other fertility. Senator Ruane is no longer present but the entire direction of travel in fertility services being rolled out by the Government is to make them affordable to everybody. It is why I have rolled out State-funded IVF for the first time. Through this Bill, we will be able to expand that IVF to donor-assisted IVF which, in the main, will help same-sex female couples but also male-female couples too. It is why we have massively expanded access to GP services which is the first port of call for anybody with fertility questions. It is why we have set up six regional fertility clinics around the country which are completely free for every person in this country to use. In the lifetime of this Government we have created three tiers of fertility services, most of which are completely free for everybody and all of which are completely free for lower-income households.

Senator O'Hara asked a question and I will ask the Chair’s indulgence for two seconds in case we do not get back to this. I was talking to some parents about the Bill just last night. They have a very real concern and I would ask that the Chair indulge me for just one minute. The question was asked as to whether, if the parents had their child through surrogacy outside Ireland, the child will be able to avail of Irish citizenship. The answer is “Yes” but not in the drafting of this Bill. We got a very clear position from the initial drafter saying it was not possible. The Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, and I have pushed back very hard on that and we have said that if someone’s parent is Irish, whether the child has been born in Canada, England, Australia, Nairobi or wherever, whatever rules apply if the parent gave birth to the child themselves or fathered that child, whether it is a heterosexual couple or otherwise, we will make sure that whatever rights would apply to that child in terms of citizenship will also apply in that case. It is an undertaking that I am very happy to give publicly here. It is in the amending legislation. It has taken a lot of work legally to get us all around to a point where we have been able to achieve this but I believe it is absolutely essential. That is being drafted right now.

I thank the Acting Chair for his indulgence.