19-05-2025
Infertility support group calls for legislation to be enacted to allow for publicly funded IVF scheme
A support and information group for people going through infertility says it is 'anxious' to see progress on implementing legislation on assisted human reproduction.
It comes as moves are under way to appoint board members to the new assisted human reproduction regulatory authority being established under the Assisted Human Reproduction Act signed into law last July.
In response to a parliamentary question on May 1, health minister Jennifer Carroll-McNeill said she could not 'give a definitive timeline for the commencement of the legislation at this time'.
As well as establishing the authority, the legislation covers both domestic and international surrogacy. It will ensure surrogacy is standardised and has oversight enforcing strict statutory provisions regarding gamete and embryo storage, research and testing.
It will also incorporate regulation for pre-implantation genetic testing of embryos; posthumous assisted human reproduction in the private system; and embryo and stem cell research.
The Department of Health advertised last month for membership of the regulatory authority's board.
Caitríona Fitzpatrick of the National Infertility Support and Information Group said: 'There was a number of commitments made in the budget last year around the expansion of the publicly-funded IVF scheme and they have not taken place yet.
"So that is the first thing we are looking to see some progress on and they would have been announced to take place in 2025. We are now nearly six months into 2025 and we are not any closer to knowing when that is going to happen.
A lot of that would be around donor conception being part of the publicly funded IVF scheme and our understanding is that some of that is premised on the legislation being commenced.
She said while the establishment of the authority was now under way, 'there will be another number of steps around funding, staffing and structures, so that, I would assume, will take until the end of this year'.
Ms Fitzpatrick said progress had always been slow in the area of assisted human reproduction, however.
'The first time that legislation was mooted in that area was 2005 so it is now 20 years later. There was certainly a sigh of relief that the legislation was completed in the last government because the legislation was originally drafted in 2017, then it was redrafted again after the surrogacy committee took place so there was a lot of steps involved in getting that legislation over the line in 2024,' she said.
'Progress in this area was always very slow. If you look at the first committee that ever looked at this was in 2000 and they reported in 2005 and then it took 20 years for legislation to come about.'
She welcomed the inclusion of assisted human reproduction in party election manifestos as well as in the programme for government, showing a will to tackle the area.
While acknowledging it is a complicated area with a lot of elements to be included, Ms Fitzpatrick said: 'We are really keen to see the publicly-funded scheme broadened outside of the legislation.'
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