AHR act stalls over human-trafficking concerns
The Government is to delay in implementing surrogacy provisions under the , because of potential conflicts with the EU’s expanded human-trafficking directive.
The AHR Act, passed in July 2023, has not yet been enacted.
In answer to a Dáil question, Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said that she could not say when provisions of the act would commence (1 May).
The conflicts lie with the revised , which must be transposed into national law by July 2026.
'Highly unusual' approach
A report last September by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) had expressed its concern at the haste with which the was proceeding.
IHREC expressed its concerns about the “highly unusual” approach taken by Irish legislators to the matter of paid-for global surrogacy.
Most European countries, such as France, Germany, Spain, Poland, Finland and Iceland, ban all forms of surrogacy.
In October last year, 2024, the Italian parliament passed a law by which Italian citizens will be prosecuted if they procure children abroad through surrogacy.
Greece and Britain allow altruistic surrogacy but not commercial arrangements.
Maud De Boer-Buquicchio, (former UN Special Rapporteur on the sale and exploitation of children) told the Oireachtas joint committee on international surrogacy (19 May 2022) that pre-birth surrogacy deals ushered in the sale of babies.
Paid-for arrangements
In November, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said that, from 1 January this year, the operational requirements would change for issuing emergency travel certificates for paid-for surrogacy arrangements in Ukraine.
The DFA resumed DNA testing for babies born through paid-for surrogacy arrangements in Ukraine, which had been suspended following Russian aggression in February 2022.
Children 'sidelined'
Last year, the Office of the Ombudsman for Children (OCO) asked legislators to reconsider the decision not to fully incorporate the ‘best interests of the child’ principle in the bill, which it said sidelined children’s rights.
The OCO that it was disappointed, under its remit to guard the rights and welfare of children, to see “gaps and deficits” in the draft legislation.
The OCO position, that ‘best interests of the child’ should be the paramount consideration in any proceedings before the courts in relation to domestic surrogacy, was not accepted by legislators, the watchdog said.