I propose to take Questions Nos. 959, 980, 1018, 1104 and 1157 together.
As the Deputies 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 legislation encompasses the regulation for the first time of a wide range of practices undertaken in this jurisdiction, including domestic altruistic surrogacy. The surrogacy provisions of the Bill 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 new AHR Regulatory Authority. 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 to the intending parent(s). Publication of the AHR Bill is a priority for my Department and the Government, and a commitment to enact this legislation is included in the Programme for Government, “Our Shared Future”. This Department will continue to engage intensively with the Office of the Attorney General in order to finalise this complex legislation. The draft Bill does not contain provisions to regulate surrogacy arrangements undertaken in other jurisdictions, nor does it provide for retrospective declarations of parentage. Issues which arise from the undertaking of surrogacy arrangements in other jurisdictions and the assignment of retrospective parentage concern areas of law that intersect across the remits of several Government Departments and require detailed examination. My Department is engaging with the Department of Justice and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth in respect of these matters. On my request officials in my Department met with the stakeholders to which you refer.