Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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2573. To ask the Minister for Health if he will address a series of matters in relation to surrogacy legislation (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37446/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware, drafting of a bill on assisted human reproduction (AHR) and associated areas of research is ongoing by officials in my Department, in conjunction with the Office of the Attorney General. This comprehensive piece of legislation will encompass the regulation, for the first time in Ireland, of a very wide range of practices, including domestic altruistic surrogacy.

The surrogacy provisions outline the specific conditions under which surrogacy in Ireland will be permitted, including a requirement for all surrogacy agreements to be pre-authorised by the AHR Regulatory Authority, the establishment of which the Bill will provide for. The legislation also sets out a court-based mechanism through which the parentage of a child born through surrogacy may be transferred from the surrogate (and her husband, if applicable) to the intending parent(s).

The draft Bill does not contain provisions to regulate surrogacy arrangements undertaken in other jurisdictions. As issues relating to international surrogacy concern areas of law that intersect across the remits of several Government Departments, my Department is engaging with the Department of Justice and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth in respect of this policy area.

Responsibility for maternity leave comes under the remit of the Minister of Children, Equality, Diversity, Inclusion & Youth, and that Department has informed my officials that legislative changes in respect of all forms of family leave must be developed in the context of the legal situation concerning parentage, including in relation to surrogacy. My officials have also been informed that some forms of family leave may currently be available to commissioning parents, including parental leave and parent’s leave. Matters concerning the payment of maternity benefit are the responsibility of the Minister of Social Protection.