I move amendment No. 17: In page 53, line 30, to delete “abnormalities” and substitute “variants”. While I certainly was not qualified in terms of the correct terminology, we had a long conversation about the correct terminology to use. This grouping of 11 amendments seeks, on foot of suggestions from Deputy Shortall and others, to refine and improve some of the terminology used in the preimplantation genetic testing, PGT, part of the Bill. Therefore, for example, instead of referring to a person who “suffers” from…

I move amendment No. 18: In page 53, line 33, to delete “mental” and substitute “intellectual”.

I move amendment No. 19: In page 54, line 2, to delete “a child who suffers from” and substitute “an existing child who has”.

I move amendment No. 20: In page 54, line 12, to delete “abnormalities” and substitute “disorders”.

I move amendment No. 21: In page 54, line 14, to delete “abnormal” and substitute “unbalanced”.

I move amendment No. 22: In page 54, line 16, to delete “defects” and substitute “disorders”.

I think we were all in a similar position on Committee Stage. We went back to the HSE with that in mind to ask whether we could facilitate this for the reasons we all discussed on Committee Stage. We got very strong pushback on patient safety grounds and I will now go through that. I was hoping to come in with something facilitating the discussion we had but we got very strong pushback. The HSE and others in the field came back and they unequivocally did not support the recommendation, which was one I was willing t…

As I said, I approached this with a view to facilitating it. I will read for the Deputies the exact clinical advice we got back. We unequivocally do not support or recommend this approach and would highlight the risks of overseas doctors being involved in the provision of such clinical advice and decision-making in such a sensitive area who operate outside the context of Irish legislation and the Irish health service, both public and private. This is purely a patient safety issue. To both Deputies' points, however,…

Obviously, but under the treatment abroad scheme, for example, it might be possible to identify centres of excellence around Europe where we could say, "Yes, you can go for this particular thing because the treatment abroad scheme works on the basis that it is something we provide here under the public system and you cannot get it, so you can get it abroad." I have a lot of sympathy with the points being raised. I have to stick with the patient safety advice coming back. It is very strong. On reflection, I do under…

I move amendment No. 24: In page 54, line 26, to delete “sex.” and substitute “sex;”.

I move amendment No. 25: In page 54, between lines 26 and 27, to insert the following: “ “variant” means a permanent change to the DNA sequence that makes up a gene that may cause disease or be part of normal human variation.”.

I move amendment No. 26: In page 55, line 1, to delete “abnormality” and substitute “variant”.

I move amendment No. 27: In page 55, to delete lines 3 to 10 and substitute the following: “(a) PGT-M or PGT-SR is being undertaken, or (b) such testing has been indicated in accordance with criteria that have been prescribed (following, on and after the establishment day, consultation by the Minister with the AHRRA).”. This amendment updates section 46, which relates to the provision of PGT-A, or pre-implantation genetic testing for aneuploidies, which are embryos with an unbalanced chromosomal complement. Arising…

I move amendment No. 28: In page 55, line 13, to delete “a child” and substitute “an existing child”.

I move amendment No. 29: In page 55, line 14, to delete “suffers from” and substitute “has”.

I move amendment No. 30: In page 55, line 28, to delete “from which such child suffers” and substitute “which such child has”.

I move amendment No. 31: In page 56, line 16, to delete “abnormality” and substitute “variant”.

We are all trying to get this right and to put the child front and centre while we balance important protections for the surrogate and rights of the intending parents. As the Deputies have said, no country has legislated for international surrogacy like this before. There are a few points I want to make on this. First, the best interests of the child test is in the legislation. I will come back to this. It is in the legislation in the context of important layers of protection we are putting in place for the surroga…

That is exactly it. We are setting up a system whereby people have a pre-agreement from the authority that sets out the criteria in law that people must meet. Having met those criteria and coming back, this amendment does not come into play because the court will say that a person has met all the criteria. Remember, the best interests of the child are already in the Bill. The only time that I can see that this amendment comes into play is if people think they are simply not going to meet the criteria. They see they…

I move amendment No. 33: In page 58, to delete lines 16 to 21 and substitute the following: “(3) Without prejudice to the generality of section 151 , the specified form of a surrogacy agreement shall require, in the case of two intending parents, each of them to indicate that he or she understands that, should the agreement be approved under this section but he or she dies before the embryo transfer concerned has been effected, such approval will be treated as revoked from and including the date of death.”.