I want to raise an issue that I raised on 31 January 2012 concerning the landmark ruling that was made in the courts yesterday on assisted human reproduction. In January 2012 I asked what was the status of the Report of the Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction, an eminent report prepared under the chairperson of Professor Dervilla Donnelly. That report contains 35 recommendations on assisted human reproduction. We have seen again where the legislators have been superseded and the Judiciary has taken a decision that the Oireachtas will have to examine. A very serious decision on assisted human reproduction was taken yesterday and legislators will have to catch up with the Judiciary. I ask that the Report of the Commission of Assisted Human Reproduction, which contains 35 recommendations and which is nearly ten years old, be discussed in this Chamber and that the Minister would come into the House and make a statement on where we are at in this respect. The genetic parents won their case yesterday to have the biological mother recognised as the mother following on from the Registrar General refusing to record the genetic mother's name on the children's birth certificate. We had always understood the principle of mater certa semper est, motherhood is always certain, but now science has taken over and we, as legislators, have to catch up. It is not fair to have people in clinics and elsewhere self-regulating and legislation must be introduced to deal with this area. We have seen in every sphere that self-regulatory systems are not acceptable. This is a serious area that must be examined. I ask the Leader to arrange for this report to be discussed in the Chamber, to make a statement on this and to arrange for the Minister to come into the House to address this issue.

I echo Senator Cáit Keane's comments. One of the saddest things I deal with in my day job other than the obvious health consequences of cancer in terms of mortality and morbidity is the possibility of premature infertility. I have seen during the years a large number of patients who, because they were diagnosed with curable cancers that required treatments which would compromise their fertility before they had children or during their reproductive years, had the opportunity for parenthood taken from them in the awful trade-off or decision some have to make about whether they will take a treatment that might cure them even though it means that they may be left with this problem. One of the little triumphs we live for is when we see people who have had that news come back to us later with children, often children who have been born as a result of assisted reproductive technologies of various kinds, which I do not need to go into in the Chamber, but also as a result sometimes of technologies which involve one or other of the forms of surrogacy.

I have seen many families where a family member who has been confronted with the prospect of possible early death and likely infertility comes back three or four years later if he or she has been lucky enough to have been cured and have children. I think this is what makes it all worthwhile. the State should put no impediments whatsoever in the way of as many people as possible achieving that happy outcome and I refer to people who suffer infertility not only as a result of cancer treatment but for other reasons. I echo the comments which have been made. The National Infertility Support and Information Group has called for legal clarity and legislation to regulate this sector. This is consistent with the recommendations made as long ago as 2005 by the Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction. Yesterday Geoffrey Shannon, the rapporteur on child protection, referred to the current situation where individual parents are going to the higher courts as a failure of the Oireachtas. Let us not have any more failures of the Oireachtas. It is incumbent on the Government and the Minister to introduce legislation and regulation expeditiously.

Following up on what Senator Norris said, this afternoon we will have an opportunity collectively as a body to make sure that there is not one more failure of the Oireachtas, which has been the failure of this House to seriously countenance the need for reform. That opportunity will be presented vigorously and definitively to the Members of the House for their decision today.