The government will only legislate for domestic surrogacy in the forthcoming assisted human reproduction bill and will not deal with international surrogacy until a later date, the Sunday Business Post has reported.

The new bill will create a regulatory framework around surrogacy and many aspects of assisted reproduction for the first time, however, provisions for international surrogacy services has now been delayed due to legal difficulties.

The Ministers for Justice, Health and Children, and the Attorney General have had meetings on the matter and drawn up an “options paper”, but they are struggling to overcome balancing the rights of children and of parents who avail of services in completely different jurisdictions.

There are also concerns about the potential for surrogates to be exploited in other countries.