Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 26 July 2022
1761. Deputy Patrick Costello asked the Minister for Health the particulars that constitute a relevant person in which section 20 applies under the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015; if a relevant person can apply without the consent of the mother; and if the relevant person can be someone who is not a husband, civil partner or cohabitant of the mother. [40289/22]
View answerParts 2 and 3 of the Children and Family Relationship Act 2015 commenced on 4 May 2020 and allow for the retrospective legal recognition of the parentage of certain donor-conceived children.
These retrospective provisions for parentage apply in circumstances where the conditions outlined in Section 20 are met. The child must have been born in Ireland as a result of a donor-assisted human reproduction procedure that was carried out before commencement of the legislation in May 2020. The procedure must have been performed in the State, or if performed outside the State, must have been performed by a person authorised to do so under the law of the place where the procedure was performed.
Under Section 21 of the Act, the mother and the intending parent may jointly apply to the District Court for a declaration that the intending parent is the parent of the child.
Under Section 22 of the Act, in cases where there is no joint application, the mother, the child or a relevant person may apply individually to the Circuit Court to have the intending parent declared a parent.
This application may be made if the child concerned is a child to whom Section 20 applies, and the relevant person applying for retrospective declaration of parentage was an intending parent of the child concerned at the time the DAHR procedure took place.
An intending parent for the purposes of Sections 21 to 23 is outlined in the legislation as follows:
“intending parent” means in relation to a child who is born as a result of a DAHR procedure, a person, other than the intending mother of the child who, at the time the DAHR procedure is performed, was aware of the performance of the procedure and undertook to care for, and exercise responsibilities towards, any child born as a result of the procedure, as if he or she were the parent of the child.
Any such applications to the Court must be accompanied by evidence that the child concerned is a child to whom section 20 applies and that the relevant person was at the time the child was conceived an intending parent of the child concerned.
