Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am really shocked by that. I ask that we would discuss publishing the paper because it is important. It has been in the public domain in certain limited places with certain groups I know of. One of these groups wrote a public letter that addresses where the issues paper points out problems with Professor O'Mahony's report. It is only reasonable, therefore, that once he has sight of the paper, we hear from him again. I propose that before the end of this, he has the opportunity to come back and address us because it seems unfair that there is an issues paper that points out difficulties with the report that are disputed very strongly by advocates in this area and Professor O'Mahony does not get an opportunity to address that. I think that is quite shocking.

One of the things that came up when Professor O'Mahony appeared before the Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth was the idea that we need to have retrospective provision. At that meeting, I said that we are hoping here for a very ethical gold standard when it comes to international surrogacy. Naturally, the retrospective cases will not achieve that standard. Does Professor O'Mahony support them being ring-fenced and dealt with specially? They did not do anything unlawful and pursued IVF in as ethical a manner as they could and some had the benefit of laws and knowledge of what to ask for while others did not. How does one distinguish between those two groups?