People who have no medical need should be able to avail of surrogacy and donor-assisted IVF, according to a Fine Gael Senator.

Emer Higgins told the Tánaiste, Leo Varadkar, that draft legislation being prepared may be medically and scientifically out of date and could have unintended consequences as it “provides for treatment for those with a specific need”.

“Today, people without specific needs can and indeed do avail of fertility treatments. Who do I mean by that? I mean same-sex couples, who avail of surrogacy, and women, particularly single women, who choose to preserve their fertility by freezing their eggs. It is essential that all fertility treatments currently available remain legally permissible, and both publicly and privately accessible, once the Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Bill becomes law”.

Addressing the €10 million allocated in the budget to provide IVF services, the Tánaiste said work is to be done “in establishing the criteria as to who qualifies, how many cycles, and so on”.

Regarding upcoming legislation, he said the it will have to be examined “to ensure we do not inadvertently cause something to be unlawful when it is not the intention that it would be made unlawful”.