Hundreds of children who are Irish citizens born through surrogacy have no legal relationship with their mothers or some of their fathers. Those families pinned their hopes on this being finally resolved following publication of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on International Surrogacy report. However, they have been left feeling confused and worried by the contradictory statements from the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Butler, in the Seanad yesterday and the Department of Health yesterday evening. I would appreciate it if the Minister for Health could confirm that the assisted human reproduction, AHR, Bill will provide for international surrogacy arrangements, including the retrospective recognition of parental rights. When will it happen?

I thank the Deputy and the committee for doing what was a very thoughtful and useful piece of work. The Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, and I have gone through the committee recommendations in detail. We have paused the AHR Bill. We need that Bill and it is very important, but I would like to include whatever is agreed on Committee Stage in it. The Bill will require significant amendments on Committee Stage. That is what we want to do. However, as the Deputy will appreciate, there is substantial complexity involved in the recommendations made in the report. Before the summer, we tasked the three line Departments to come back to the Government with legislative proposals in respect of the various recommendations. We are awaiting that report. I would like to see those proposals come back in a way that means we can proceed through Committee Stage this year. I am very keen that the AHR Bill is passed in this Dáil term. We can wait until close to the end of the term, but we need it for other AHR reasons. It is an ongoing process. That is the intent.