For Surrogates

Why Irish women become surrogates

Most surrogates in Ireland are women who have already completed their own families and who want to help another family — often a friend or family member, sometimes a stranger introduced through a clinic or counsellor. Surrogacy in Ireland is altruistic only: it is not a job, not a transaction, and not a route to income. It is a gift of time, body, and risk, recognised by Irish law and supported by mandatory counselling, legal advice, and medical oversight.

Eligibility under the 2024 Act

The Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Act 2024 sets statutory criteria for who may be a surrogate in a permitted Irish surrogacy. The detailed criteria will be specified by the regulator (AHRRA), but the directional rules are:

• Age range: a minimum age (typically 25 in comparable jurisdictions) and a maximum age set by AHRRA.
• Previous birth: you should already have given birth to at least one child of your own, with no significant complications.
• Health: physical and mental health screening, including general medical, obstetric and psychological assessment.
• Residency: ordinarily resident in Ireland for a minimum period.
• Independent legal advice and counselling: mandatory before any agreement is signed. The intending parents pay for it, but you choose your own solicitor and your own counsellor — they act for you, not for them.
• Genetic considerations: the model is gestational surrogacy — the embryo is created from the intending parents' (or donors') gametes, and the surrogate has no genetic link to the child she carries.

If you are interested in surrogacy and these criteria fit, the next step is a screening conversation with a fertility clinic and an initial counselling session — both can happen before any commitment is made.

What the journey looks like, medically

1. Initial screening. Your GP, a fertility clinic, and a counsellor will run a health and psychological screening. Nothing is signed at this stage.
2. Matching. Where you are not matched with a known couple, the clinic or AHRRA process will introduce you to intending parents. You make the decision on whether to proceed.
3. Independent legal advice and counselling. Required by law before the agreement is signed.
4. AHRRA approval. Once Part 11 is commenced, the agreement must be approved by the regulator before any embryo transfer.
5. Embryo transfer and pregnancy. Routine antenatal care, agreed communication with the intending parents, agreed protocols for scans and decisions during pregnancy.
6. Birth. You give birth in your usual maternity setting; the intending parents are present where this has been agreed.
7. Post-birth consent. You give consent to the parental order — and you can withdraw it during the post-birth window. The Act protects this consent absolutely. You are the legal mother of the child until that consent is given and the parental order issues.

The blog article Becoming a Surrogate in Ireland walks through each of these steps in more detail.

Your rights, in plain English

• You decide. You can decline to proceed at any point before pregnancy, and you give the consent that finalises the parental order after birth.
• You are the legal mother at birth. The child is your child in law until the parental order issues. The intending parents only become legal parents through that order.
• Independent professionals act for you. Your solicitor and your counsellor are yours — paid for by the intending parents but accountable only to you.
• Medical decisions remain yours. Decisions about your own body during pregnancy — antenatal care, scans, mode of delivery — remain your decisions in consultation with your medical team.
• You cannot be paid a fee. The Act prohibits commercial surrogacy in Ireland. You can be reimbursed for reasonable expenses (see below).
• National surrogacy register. AHRRA maintains the national surrogacy register; the child has the right to access information about their origins when they are old enough.

What expenses can be paid?

The Act allows reimbursement of reasonable expenses only. These typically include:

• Medical costs not covered by your insurance or the public system.
• Loss of earnings during pregnancy and the post-birth recovery period.
• Travel to and from medical appointments.
• Maternity clothing, supplements, and pregnancy-related necessities.
• Insurance — life and disability cover for the duration of the surrogacy.
• Counselling and legal fees (your independent advice).
• Childcare for your own children during medical appointments and post-birth recovery.

What it does not include is a fee for being a surrogate, gifts of significant monetary value above expenses, or post-birth payments that look like fees. AHRRA will set guideline ceilings; the regulator's role is to keep the model genuinely altruistic.

The emotional and family dimension

Pregnancy is a serious physical and emotional commitment. Carrying a pregnancy for someone else adds another layer — to your relationship with your own family, to your relationship with the intending parents, and to your own sense of self during and after the pregnancy. The mandatory counselling under the Act is not a tickbox; it exists because this is real, and because the post-birth period in particular needs care. Talk to your partner. Talk to your existing children, age-appropriately. Talk to a counsellor experienced in surrogacy.

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Surrogacy.ie is an editorial information service. This page is general information and is not legal, medical or financial advice. Consult qualified Irish professionals for advice on your own situation. Updated 27 April 2026.