A legal requirement for donors of sperm and eggs to be non-anonymous has been described as unenforceable by a former legislator.

During discussions of the Child and Family Relationships Bill at a sitting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice and Equality yesterday, former Minister for Justice Alan Shatter, who helped draft the original Bill, warned his successor, Frances Fitzgerald, that a requirement for genetic donors to be fully identified, as a measure to protect children’s rights to know their biological parents, would merely see intending parents “get on a plane” to seek reproductive services in jurisdictions allowing for anonymous donations, effectively rendering the Irish ban useless.

Mr Shatter added that, in a country of Ireland’s size, the anonymity bar would actually result in an ending of the practice of donor-assisted human reproduction.

However, sperm from known donors in Denmark can already be obtained here and in practice almost all donor eggs and sperm used by fertility clinics in Ireland already come from overseas.

Mr Shatter added: “I don’t want us, out of the best of idealistic motives – allowing children to trace their origins – create the unintended consequence of creating a barrier to donation in Ireland,” he said.

For her part, the current Justice Minister, Frances Fitzgerald insisted that it remained the “strong view” of the committee that children should be afforded the right to fully know their origins. “I’m absolutely convinced the principle is the right principle,” she said.

Mr Shatter countered that the ban, in forcing couples abroad, was merely “an Irish solution to an Irish problem”.

This is despite the fact that other countries also ban anonymous donations. Sweden and the UK are two examples and UK clinics frequently use sperm from countries like Denmark.