Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

275. To ask the Minister for Health if the forthcoming legislation to enact Parts 2 and 3 of the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015 will be drafted to include parents who have conceived through artificial insemination at home and same-sex male couples; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29495/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Children and Family Relationships Act 2015 reforms and updates family law to address the needs of children living in diverse family types and the commencement of Parts 2 & 3 of the Act is the responsibility of the Minister for Health. During the preparation of regulations to facilitate the commencement of Parts 2 & 3 of the Act a number of technical drafting issues came to light that required amendments to the Act of 2015 through primary legislation.

I received Government approval on Tuesday 26 of June to draft an amendment Bill to remedy these defects in the Act of 2015. I hope to be in a position to introduce this legislation into the Dail as soon as possible and commence Parts 2 & 3 of the Children and Family Relationships Act in the autumn. 

The Children and Family Relationships Act specifically relates to procedures where the intending mother is also the birth mother. As such this Act does not encompass surrogacy. Provisions relating to the regulation of surrogacy are included in Part 6 of the General Scheme of the Assisted Human Reproduction Bill 2017.

The Government approved the drafting of a Bill on assisted human reproduction (AHR) and associated areas of research, which will be based on the published General Scheme, in October last year. Officials in my Department are engaging with the Office of the Attorney General in relation to the process of drafting this Bill. The General Scheme is published on my Department’s website and the Joint Committee on Health is currently conducting a review of the General Scheme of the Assisted Human Reproduction Bill 2017 as part of the pre-legislative scrutiny process, which began in January of this year.