Shatter blasts lack of action to protect surrogate families

Annmarie and Ian McCarthy with their four-year-old twins David and Olivia at their home in Killavullen in Cork. As far as Irish law is concerned Annmarie is a “legal stranger” to her children. Pic: Daragh Mc Sweeney/Provision

A former Minister for Justice has blasted the State’s lack of action regarding surrogate families as a “disgrace”.

Alan Shatter, Fine Gael’s Minister for Justice between 2011 and 2014 and a prominent family law solicitor, claims that a bill introduced by him in early 2014 would have dealt with the issue of legal recognition for surrogate parents, only for the subject of surrogacy to be dropped by the then Government several months later.