I move: That Dáil Éireann shall take note of the Report of the Joint Committee on Health entitled "Report on Pre-Legislative Scrutiny of the Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) (Amendment) Bill", copies of which were laid before Dáil Éireann on 9th October, 2025. Tonight we are debating a report published by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health. This was a report we worked on last summer across the committee as a pre-legislative scrutiny report on the forthcoming Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) (Amendment) Bill. I thank everybody who worked on the report, and who contributed to it, in particular my fellow members of the committee. I chaired the committee and Deputy Colm Burke is the Leas-Chathaoirleach. The members of the committee include Deputies Michael Cahill, Sorca Clarke, David Cullinane, Martin Daly, Pádraig O'Sullivan, Peter Roche, Marie Sherlock, and a number of Senators, including Senators Manus Boyle, Maria Byrne, Tom Clonan, Teresa Costello and Nicole Ryan. This was the first report we published. It is a really important topic, one that has real impacts on the lives of many people, some of whom have joined us in the Gallery this evening, who are directly affected by the issue and whose lives and families are impacted by the delay in the legislation and in the failure of the State to legislate on this issue over a long period of time. I intend to talk through our report. I will outline the foreword for the record. I will read that out and I will talk through the recommendations, of which we have 18 in total. The foreword states: The journey towards robust legislation to regulate and support donor assisted human reproduction (DAHR) and surrogacy has been a long and winding one spanning over a quarter of a century. This has included the Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction (2000), a special Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy (2022) and a series of cases through our courts. At times over the last 25 years progress has felt slow, at others sudden. What has developed during that time is a fragmented landscape, with significant gaps and barriers. The Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Act 2024 (the 2024 Act) was a landmark and long-awaited piece of legislation. Unfortunately, the legislation, which remains uncommenced, contains several gaps and leaves too many families behind. The proposed supplementary legislation that was the subject of our consideration must close these gaps and finally provide a workable framework for assisted human reproduction. It’s crucially important that supplementary legislation is as inclusive as possible – with a central focus on the rights of the child. In particular, the proposed legislation must facilitate ethical international DAHR and protect the rights of our citizens abroad. It’s also important that it recognises and vindicates the right to procreate and the right to private and family life. Any interference with these rights by the State must be proportional and minimally invasive. Legislating in this area is complex, but not impossible. It’s important to acknowledge that this pre-legislative scrutiny report is based on a policy paper provided by the Department of Health rather than a published general scheme or draft Bill. This policy paper was supplemented by a series of written questions to the Department. While not best practice, this approach was undertaken to ensure there would be no unnecessary delays and that the legislation can progress as it is a matter of real and pressing importance for the families affected. Our committee was really keen that we would do this work as quickly as possible. We did not wait for the Department to provide us with the full scheme, because we want to see this legislation passed and enacted as quickly as possible. I thank the key stakeholders for their extensive engagement and constructive proposals, in particular, the LGBTQ+ Parenting Alliance, made up of LGBT Ireland, Equality for Children and Irish Gay Dads, and Irish Families Through Surrogacy. Both groups have carried out extensive and detailed analyses which have informed and shaped the recommendations of this report. I also thank the officials from the Department of Health for their engagement on the issue and the committee secretariat for its ongoing support. As I mentioned, this report has 18 recommendations which we hope will help to shape the draft Bill to ensure that it meets the needs of everybody concerned. The recommendations also include a list of legislative actions for the Department of Health to consider as well as recommendations on surrogacy leave, which is a matter for the Department of Social Protection. I hope that the Bill, once passed and enacted, will be the final step in what has been a very long journey towards the creation of an inclusive assisted human reproduction framework for Ireland. As I said, this has been a very long journey and I commend the families and the advocates on all of their work on this. Prior to my election, I worked with LGBT Ireland, one of the organisations that advocated in this area and I saw first-hand how hard these families have worked to advocate for their rights. These are people who, after they put their kids to bed at night, get on Zoom calls with other parents who have been left behind and who lack family rights. They have been campaigning now for over 25 years to have their families recognised, to have equal parental rights and to be treated equally by the State. They have campaigned outside the Dáil, held protests and written so many submissions to Government Departments. I do not know how they have the energy to keep doing it and it has gone on for far too long at this stage. I will talk through some of the recommendations from the report. As I already said, there are 18 recommendations and I would be really keen to hear from the Minister of State on each of the recommendations and the Department's position on them. If the Department is not accepting the committee's recommendations, I would really like to know why not. If the Minister of State is not in a position to tell us today, I ask that she would write to the committee to set out, in detail, the Department's position on each of our 18 recommendations. The committee worked on this report last summer and we would really like to see a robust response from the Department. We have not heard from the Department yet on it and it is important that we do. Our first recommendation is that the Bill must address all of the gaps in the 2024 Act. That is a simple, fairly straightforward call that we get this right now. We had the Act in 2024 and, as we have identified, there are serious gaps in that legislation. The next piece, the second Bill, has to close all of those gaps. We cannot be back here again in 12 or 18 months with a third or fourth Bill. Once and for all, we must close the gaps. We have identified them and we need to do it for the families affected. Our second recommendation is that the Bill must have a child's rights-based framework. Provision should be made to enshrine the paramountcy principle of the child's best interests in the granting of parental orders or in the declaration of parental orders under the 2015 Children and Family Relationships Act and the 2024 Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Act. This is one of the key requests of families and advocates, that we enshrine the best interests of the child in the legislation. It is really important that when judges are adjudicating on these matters, they are asking what is in the best interests of the child before them. That is fundamental and really crucial. Linked to that is our third recommendation, that in decisions on parentage in relation to surrogacy or donor-assisted human reproduction, the courts and decision-making bodies should be provided with some level of judicial discretion. Each case is different and discretion is a key feature of family law. If we look at other pieces of family law like the Adoption Act 2010, the Child Care Act 1991, the Guardianship of Infants Act 1964, the Mental Health Act 2001, the Children First Act 2015 and the Child and Family Agency Act 2013, we see that they all enshrine the use of the paramountcy principle. I do not understand why this has not been done here. We do it in lots of other areas of family law where there is discretion and the best interests of the child are enshrined in the legislation. It should be happening here. This is not just the recommendation of the Oireachtas joint committee. It is also the recommendation of the Ombudsman for Children and the special rapporteur for child protection. They have both recommended that the paramountcy principle be inserted into the 2024 Act and that is a key request. It is top of the list here, which is important, as is the piece on judicial discretion. We believe that the Bill must be equality proofed. Recommendation No. 5 is that in cases of international donor-assisted human production, the Bill must provide a mechanism for second parents to have their parentage recognised. This is really crucial. People have created families together. They have decided that they are going to have children, but at the moment we have so many families where only one parent is recognised and the other parent is left as a legal stranger. This has huge impacts on children and their families. Not having a pathway to parentage means that the person who is raising them is not even recognised as their parent. It has impacts in terms of going to school and to the doctor and at passport control. It can give rise to longer term issues around acquiring citizenship rights and, in the event that one of the parents dies, there are issues around inheritance. It is fundamentally important that children have the protection of both of their parents and that the people who are raising them are not legal strangers. These are their parents and they have always been their parents. They have been their parents from before they were born and the State should recognise that. We need to close the gaps in the law to allow these people to be parents and not let criteria like where children were conceived or where they were born exclude them from having two legal parents like any other family. In cases of Irish citizens born abroad, the Bill must include a process to recognise the parentage of those children born through surrogacy or donor-assisted reproduction. We have to provide protections for our citizens abroad. It cannot just be the case that we have a pathway to parentage for those born in the Republic. We have Irish citizens living all around the world. So many people from my generation were forced to emigrate and they have children born abroad. Those children deserve Irish citizenship and deserve to be recognised. We need to fix the gaps in the law to allow that to happen. Our seventh recommendation is that provision should be made for a path to parentage for Irish citizens returning home who are in same-sex couples and whose children were born or conceived abroad in countries that do not recognise both parents. We know that, right across the world, there are countries that fail to recognise same-sex couples and their families. If Irish citizens are living in these countries, like Poland or Hungary, for example, and they have children there, when they return home, there should be a pathway to get recognised as parents. This only affects a small group of people but it is an important issue. Our eighth recommendation is that children of citizens born abroad through surrogacy or donor-assisted reproduction should have the right to become Irish citizens. Our ninth recommendation is that all unnecessary barriers to recognition must be removed. Non-court administrative processes should be considered as part of the Adoption Act. The requirement for the High Court should be reconsidered and applications for past surrogacy agreements should be allowed to be made through the Circuit Court. We have to make it as easy as possible for parents to get through these processes. Expecting people to go to the High Court, at huge cost, is not necessary is not provided for in other Acts and should be reduced. Our tenth recommendation is that a legal value should be put on the female genetic link in donor-assisted human reproduction and surrogacy. Recommendation No. 11 is that the 2015 Act should be amended to allow joint parental rights for same-sex couples in cases of non-clinical conception. This is really important. We should not be forcing people to go to a clinic to conceive a child when they can conceive at home in comfort and with reduced costs. Ultimately, there is a key question here about reproductive freedom. There are ways to protect the rights of the child, genetic information and so on. They have been set out in Private Member's Bills put before this House and the Government should accept those and work through them. People's right to reproductive freedom should be respected in this House. The 2024 Act contains no provision for parental leave or benefits for surrogacy families and this must be rectified as a matter of urgency. I ask that the Department of Health would write to the Department of Social Protection to get provisions in place as soon as possible so that these families can avail of legal benefits and surrogacy benefits. There cannot be a gap there. The 13th recommendation is that the Assisted Human Reproduction Regulatory Authority, AHRRA, should be provided with the power to establish ethics committees to consider individual circumstances in cases where surrogacy agreements go beyond the prescribed framework. We cannot have a rigid checklist. There is room for dealing with this on a case-by-case basis and for ethics committees to examine these cases so that people are not criminalised for stepping one inch beyond the law and facing criminal prosecution because of that. There should be a framework here for an ethical way to deal with these issues. Recommendation No. 14 is that every effort must be made to ensure consistency between the 2015 Children and Family Relationships Act and the 2024 Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Act, particularly, for example, in relation to habitual residency requirements. Recommendation No. 15 is that adequate funding and support should be provided to the AHRRA to ensure that it can fulfil its various functions efficiently. I would be interested to hear if any money has been provided in the budget for the new agency. When we set up these new State bodies, agencies and regulatory frameworks, we have to fund and resource them properly. From what I can see, we have not heard how much money has been allocated. If we want the AHRRA to carry out this function and to manage this whole area, we need to resource it properly. Recommendation No. 16 is that the provisions of the 2024 Act should be reviewed to ensure they are trans inclusive, especially the provisions relating to gametes. We often talk here about trans rights and we need to do that in law as well. We must make sure that our law is inclusive and not excluding people. We can do that by making the language more gender neutral in certain areas. It is a simple change but an important one. Recommendation No. 17 is that the Department of Health should run an awareness campaign in advance of the commencement of the 2024 Act. The aim of the awareness campaign is to provide clarity for intending parents on the new law and the transitional provisions. Clear guidance should be given on the required documents and procedures. It is really important as these are big changes to the law. This is a new framework and a new, big Act. The Department has a role in providing clarity, creating awareness and informing people of what the procedures are under the new law so if they are intending to become parents, they know what is involved and what rules they have to follow. The Department has to spend some money on that and run that awareness campaign. Finally, our 18th recommendation is that clarity must be provided on when the Act will be commenced in full. I would love to hear from the Minister of State about when the Minister intends to commence the 2024 Act and when she intends to bring forward the supplementary Bill that will hopefully, once and for all, close all of these gaps. These recommendations from the Oireachtas joint committee are not radical but they will fix the gaps. They will provide families right across the country with the protections they need and, in particular, children so they have the right to both of their parents. For the parents across the country, I really hope we do this without delay.

Sentiment score: 0.17

I thank the Ceann Comhairle and the Minister of State. I really welcome the remark that many of the recommendations will be included and reflected in the legislation when it is finally published. That is very welcome. I will be glad to report back to the rest of the committee on that. That is great to see. What is missing, and I think the Minister of State would agree, is clarity on the timeline here. When we engaged with the Minister over the summer there was pressure for us to progress our engagement on this issue because the Minister was keen to progress the legislation. As I said, we worked on this report in August and we published it when we came back straight away. This is why I am slightly frustrated with the delay here. We wanted to see the legislation before Christmas and we wanted to see this progressed. It is frustrating that we have not got that clear timeline from the Minister of State today about when the Bill will be published, when it will be enacted, when it will be commenced, when the families directly affected will get the rights that they are arguing for and when the families will get the protections they need. Crucially this is what it is about. It is unfortunate that we go into another year with that uncertainty. This could have been resolved this side of Christmas and it is disappointing that it is not. A number of Deputies referenced the commencement of section 232 of the 2024 Act. That relates to families who used a known donor in the past, in particular lesbian couples who used a known donor in the past, and them getting recognised and jointly protected. I know people whose kids are now 18 and they still are not protected. These are people who created a family together with a friend who might have been a donor before we had marriage equality. In some cases it was while same-sex activity was still a crime. They created families together, they did it ethically and the State has never recognised them jointly as parents. These are people who brought these kids up together in loving, stable relationships, raised beautiful children and all they are asking for is that they get recognised as their parents. It is there in law. It is written into the law but it has not been commenced by the Minister. This is something I have asked parliamentary questions about. I know other Deputies have asked parliamentary questions about it. From these parliamentary questions we know that the courts have done their side of the work, that the District Court has updated the rules, that the Circuit Court has updated the rules, and it is now sitting on the Minister's desk waiting for the Minister to sign the Commencement Order. I would ask her to do that before Christmas. At least do that. Commence the one part. The law is already passed and the rules are in place. What she could do now is sign the Commencement Order and give these families the gift of those protections before Christmas for this small cohort of families so that they would have that joint parental right. It would be the start of the journey on this. It would be a really good act if the Minister could commence that because we do know that all the pieces are in place for this and it is just waiting on the Minister to sign the Commencement Order. Saying in her statement that she intends to do it is not enough. I want to know why the Minister has not done it and if she will do that before Christmas. I would like if the Minister of State could bring that back to her. In her closing statement the Minister of State also referred to the legal cases, and that this may be one of the reasons why we have not seen progress in the last six months. We cannot wait while the cases go through the courts. In the absence of legislation what we will have is more cases before the courts. Families who are deeply frustrated are now taking to the courts to vindicate their rights. We are going to have more cases. The longer the Minister delays the more cases we will have, and the more delays we will have. These cases will advance through the courts. Cases that are in the High Court will be in the Supreme Court and we will wait and we will wait. What the Department and the Minister can do is resolve all of that and they can provide the certainty. We can legislate in this House and families would not be forced to go to the courts. It is at huge personal cost and huge stress for individuals to go to the High Court to try to vindicate their rights to get protections for their family, very basic protections in law, to be regarded as the parents of their own children. We should not be expecting families to do that. It is frustrating when we hear that this is the delay, that the State's failure to pass a law means that now people have had to go to the courts, which is now holding up the passing of the law. When will this end? If we pass the law we can resolve all of that. I have no doubt that if the law is passed those people who are before the courts would withdraw those cases because the legislation will resolve the issues and will provide them with the protections in place. As I have said a number of times here, I am concerned about the legislative output. I think we have passed fewer Bills in this year than nearly any year since the foundation of the State.

Sentiment score: 0.09

I said "nearly". It has been quite a low output-----

Sentiment score: -0.17

How many Bills were passed?

Sentiment score: 0.00

Absolutely, and we had an argument about that because we thought it should have been dealt with at the health committee and that it did not need the floor of the Dáil to do it. All of the legislation could have been progressed. I had a look back over the historical span of the number of Bills passed. In some years in this Oireachtas we had 45, 50, or 60 Bills passed.

Sentiment score: -0.07

There is a low level of legislative output and it is frustrating that we have not seen this Bill passed, and other areas. Law reform is needed in lots of other areas. We were talking yesterday about vapes and other areas. There is a need for law reform and we would like to see some of that progressed, including this Bill. As I said, it is crucially important. As Deputy Sherlock said, there is a diversity of families who are affected but there is an area of work already done around LGBT families. We passed the marriage equality referendum over ten years ago. When people went to the polls that day they were voting to provide equality for families, for families to be treated equally, and for full recognition of their families. People around the country are surprised when they meet same-sex couples who have children to see how the law has not solved the issue and that it has not provided them with the family rights other people enjoy. A decade on from marriage equality it is really frustrating that the work has not been done in these Houses and Government Departments to iron out the detail of the law to provide pathways to parentage for same sex couples. Also, as was said, there are other families who have done surrogacy abroad and there are families created in lots of ways in which both parents are not recognised and they have been waiting far too long for this to be resolved. I hope we will not be back here next Christmas still talking about this. I hope next year will be the year we get this resolved and sorted. We as a committee have engaged constructively on this and will continue to do so. We will make time available at the committee. I would be happy to hold additional sittings if they are needed to progress this legislation and get this sorted once and for all. It is really important we do this, in particular for the children. The recommendations laid out in the report, if accepted, would solve many of the issues and address many of the concerns people have been raising over decades. I welcome that the recommendations have been considered seriously by the Department. As I said in my opening speech, I would like a letter from the Department or the Minister giving the Department’s position on each of the recommendations and as soon as possible for them to give us a clear timeline on the legislation, when it will be published, when it is intended for it to be taken through the Houses and ultimately commenced. That is the key because sometimes we pass laws and never commence them, as we are seeing with the 2024 Act and the section we referenced. I might be the final speaker before Christmas so I join others in wishing everyone who works in the Houses of Oireachtas a very happy Christmas, as well as all the Members and staff. I thank everybody for all the support over the past year and all they work they have done. I hope people get a good break over Christmas.

Sentiment score: 0.27