As the Deputy will be aware, the Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Bill 2022 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 in this country, of a wide range of assisted human reproduction (AHR) practices, including domestic altruistic surrogacy. 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.
Following the publication of the Final Report of the Special Oireachtas Joint Committee on International Surrogacy, an 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 appropriate legislative proposals. I await the completion of this Group’s work within the coming weeks.
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 – which will need to be formally drafted by the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel – will be through the insertion of relevant provisions into the Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Bill 2022 at Committee Stage.
At this juncture, I cannot provide a definitive timeline as to when Committee Stage will be scheduled. Nevertheless, I can assure the Deputy that 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.
