Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I understand where the Senator is coming from. She has done a huge amount of work over a long number of years on this issue, which is important. It is also important that we cross all the t's and dot all the i's to make sure that there is no constitutional challenge. We are talking about retrospective orders, which are always a challenge in relation to anything that is done in the whole legal process.

The Minister is determined to seek a way to speedily and appropriately resolve the predicaments and uncertainties faced by parents of existing children born through surrogacy. It is completely understandable if these parents are frustrated in waiting for their opportunity to apply to the courts for a parental order.However, it has to be borne in mind that the lengthy and far-reaching assisted human reproduction legislation covers a wide range of activities in addition to surrogacy, including rapidly advancing areas of medicine that require regulation. The consensus view of the Ministers, Deputies Donnelly, McEntee and O'Gorman, is that the speed with which the legislation has been prepared, drafted and passed in recent years and will now be commenced, compares extremely favourably with other policy projects, many of which did not involve such significant changes in court procedures nor the setting up of a brand-new regulatory authority.

The Minister, Deputy Donnelly, wishes to reassure Senators he is advancing the commencement of this much-needed piece of historic legislation as quickly as possible in order to ensure the goal of providing for a route to formal recognition by the State of approved surrogacy arrangements is achieved and that a robust regulatory framework for assisted human reproduction more broadly is put in place.

I understand where Senator Seery Kearney is coming from, as I said earlier. I also understand that Departments have to be extremely careful about any constitutional challenge on this issue. In fairness, it is important that we get every part of this right. Perhaps assurances were given but if issues have arisen it is important that we resolve them in the best possible way and make sure everything is in order when the final process proceeds on each and every one of these applications.