Courts could be granted power to make ‘parental orders’ in surrogacy cases

The plan is one option under consideration by the Department of Health to resolve parenthood issues affecting LGBT+ couples in particular, The Irish Times reports.

Separate regulations allowing same-sex parents to be registered on the birth certificate of a child born through donor-assisted reproduction are due to be brought into effect today.

Health Minister Simon Harris will later sign regulations to commence sections 2 and 3 of the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015 from 5 May 2020.

Mr Harris said: “This is something many families have fought for for years and I am so pleased we know have a start date.

“When we voted in the marriage equality referendum, we voted for every relationship to be treated equally. However, it is clear our legislation still needs to evolve.

“When I met with LGBT families a number of weeks ago, they pointed out the impractical realities of our current laws and while we know some of their issues will be addressed through the Assisted Human Reproduction Bill, there are areas that require some consideration.

“I have some proposals as to how to look at these matters but I want to discuss these with the families first and hope to make some progress on this next week.”