Report of the Joint Committee on Health: Motion Dail Éireann — 2025-12-18 ============================================================ Mary Butler (FF), Waterford I thank all the Members for their valuable contributions this evening. The Minister, Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, as Members know, is very supportive of this legislation. I acknowledge the parents who are in the Public Gallery from various advocacy groups who worked and engaged with the 2024 Act and are doing exactly the same again with this new Act that is under way. This is extremely complex legislation, as everyone can appreciate. As Chief Whip, one of my roles relates to legislation. I had the end-of-year wrap-up with the Attorney General and the Office of Parliamentary Counsel to the Government yesterday afternoon. We discussed the Bill and it is under way. It is legally complex and technical and there is a lot of good co-operation between the Department of Health and the Department of justice on it. While the Minister was hopeful that the Bill would be ready prior to Christmas, it will get priority drafting. It certainly will get any priority supports it needs from my end as Chief Whip. It is great to have consensus across the Dáil. It does not always happen. As Deputy Sherlock said, this is really important for a small group of parents who need this vital legislation for themselves and their children. I assure Deputies that I will inform the Minister of the constructive observations made today, especially in respect of section 232, which Deputies Rice and Sherlock both spoke about. In fairness, the Minister wrote the speech herself. She is very invested in this and I wish to acknowledge that. I also acknowledge the former Minister, Stephen Donnelly, with whom I worked closely in the Department for five years as well as former Senator, Mary Seery Kearney, who put her heart and soul into this work. While he will not be a bit happy, I also wish to acknowledge my adviser sitting in the Public Gallery, Mr. Páraic Gallagher, who worked closely on this with many of the parents in the previous Dáil. I also know that relevant officials from the Department will have been closely taking notes of all the queries, comments and issues raised tonight as they look to finalise the Bill. I believe we are at that stage. I have set out the progress being made on various fronts on the path to having a robust and operational regulatory framework for assisted human reproduction, AHR. Indeed, completion of the pre-legislative scrutiny report was an important element in the process. Once again, I compliment Deputy Rice for his commitment and passion to getting this over the line. One of the key recommendations and issues raised by the committee relates to communication and awareness. The Government and I completely agree on the importance of clarity on any new laws that will be introduced and, if applicable, transitional arrangements. Under the terms of the legislation, the AHRRA will produce relevant information documents. I also know that Members wish to have certainty about when exactly the Bill will be published. There is continued intensive engagement involving the lead Departments and the Office of the Attorney General on a number of complex issues. The outcome of a number of ongoing relevant legal cases will also have a direct bearing on the ability to finalise the Bill. However, I assure Deputies that all involved are fully committed to completing the work required to publish the Bill as soon as it is practical. As one example, a recommendation in the pre-legislative scrutiny report seeks the inclusion of a process to recognise the parentage of Irish citizens living abroad who have children through surrogacy or donor-assisted human reproduction, DAHR. This is being proposed to be included in the Bill, with the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration taking the lead. I know that Deputy Rice and fellow Deputies will appreciate the complexities involved and the challenge on producing appropriate, balanced and coherent legislation. EU member states have been considering the matter of basic mutual recognition of parentage at EU level for many years and agreeing a common approach has proven to be exceptionally challenging, given the complexities involved. Nevertheless, the Government is determined to find solutions to this. The Minister is determined to find solutions to this and to many other outstanding questions. Intensive work will continue in the new year to advance the health (assisted human reproduction) (amendment) Bill, the commencement of the 2024 Act, and the operational capacity of the AHRRA. All that remains for me to do is to wish everyone a very happy Christmas. I thank the Ceann Comhairle for all her support to me as Chief Whip over the last ten or 11 months. It has been a baptism of fire, maybe for both of us. It has been a lot of busy days and late nights. It is fitting that on the first day of the new Dáil, I was not Chief Whip at the time, but when the Taoiseach was appointed after that first day both of us took to the floor first and both of us are concluding here tonight. I wish everyone a happy Christmas and especially those in the Public Gallery. I thank all the staff in the Houses who are here late on a Thursday night. It is often known as the graveyard shift but I believe this is one of the most important pieces of legislation on the most important topic that we can debate and it is fitting that it is the last debate this year. Thank you. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-18/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:29+00:00 Sitting date: 2025-12-18