Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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184. To ask the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 513 of 12 October 2021, the status of proposed legislation for parents who have children through surrogacy; if such legislation will include a provision for maternity leave for mothers through a streamlined service that ensures both parents are legally recognised as such, retrospect parentage for those mothers who have been granted just guardianship to date and measures to reduce the substantial legal costs involved for the parents concerned; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50576/22]

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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185. To ask the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 513 of 12 October 2021, the status of proposed legislation for parents who have children through surrogacy; if such legislation will include a provision for maternity leave for mothers through a streamlined service that ensures both parents are legally recognised as such, retrospective parentage for those mothers who have been granted just guardianship to date and measures to reduce the substantial legal costs involved for the parents concerned; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50577/22]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware, the Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Bill 2022 (AHR Bill) passed Second Stage in the Dáil on March 23rd 2022 and has been referred to the Select Committee on Health for Third Stage.

This legislation encompasses the regulation for the first time of a wide range of practices undertaken in this jurisdiction, including domestic altruistic surrogacy. I wish to progress this much-needed and long-awaited piece of historic legislation as quickly as possible to ensure that a robust regulatory framework for AHR is in place.

It is not within the scope of the AHR legislation to include provisions in respect of statutory leave. Responsibility for various forms of family-related leave comes under the remit of the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration & 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 broader legal situation concerning parentage or pertaining to any other relevant issue.

As Minister for Health, I have no role in the matter of the level of legal costs which may be incurred in relation to the undertaking of an individual surrogacy agreement or any court applications arising from such an arrangement. I am of the view that matters of such importance as the determination of the parentage of a child born through surrogacy should be decided by an appropriate court.

The published Bill does not contain provisions to regulate surrogacy arrangements undertaken in other jurisdictions. International surrogacy raises complex ethical questions concerning areas of law that intersect across the remits of several Government Departments and require detailed examination. The issues which arise from Irish people engaging in cross-border surrogacy primarily relate to parentage, guardianship, citizenship and, potentially, adoption.

Following the publication of the Special Oireachtas Joint Committee on International Surrogacy’s Final Report, a working Inter-Departmental Group was established to review the Report’s recommendations, along with other relevant matters, with the aim of determining an agreed policy position and suitable next steps, in the form of a unified Policy Paper and, as appropriate, legislative proposals.

Any policy and legislative proposals that may arise following the completion of the Departments’ examination of the Committee’s recommendations will require consideration and approval by Government. However, the clear intention of the Group, and Minister McEntee, Minister O’Gorman and myself, is that the appropriate vehicle for accommodating legislative proposals in respect of international surrogacy will be through the insertion of relevant provisions into the Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Bill 2022 at Committee Stage.