Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 July 2021
3233. Deputy Joe O'Brien asked the Minister for Health the status of plans to legislate for surrogacy in Ireland in particular in relation to formal recognition of mothers on birth certificates, retrospective declarations of parentage and access to surrogacy internationally. [40937/21]
View answerAs 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 include 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.
In addition, the Department of Justice has published a guidance document on citizenship, parentage, guardianship and travel document issues in relation to children born as a result of surrogacy arrangements entered into outside the State. The purpose of this document is to provide information to prospective intending parents on the steps necessary to ensure that a child born abroad through a surrogacy arrangement may enter and reside in the State and to secure the best interests of the child and should address the query on the legal position of children born through surrogacy outside the State. This guidance document is available here:
www.justice.ie/en/JELR/20120221%20Guidance%20Document.pdf/Files/20120221%20Guidance%20Document.pdf
