For married couples from Ireland · Reviewed June 2026
Ireland passed a landmark surrogacy statute in July 2024 — and as of June 2026 it has still not been switched on. Families are living in the gap between the old vacuum and the new regime, and the new regime, once commenced, will treat compensated programs abroad very differently. We explain both laws plainly, because the timing of your decision matters more for Irish couples than for any other nationality we serve.
The law today · in force
Irish law currently has no commenced surrogacy framework. Going abroad is not an offense; on return, the genetic father can establish parentage through the courts, while the intended mother has no direct route to legal motherhood — a gap Irish families have managed, imperfectly, for years.
The law waiting · enacted 2 July 2024, not yet commenced
Once commenced, international surrogacy will require advance approval from a new regulator (AHRRA) — and a "permitted" international surrogacy must not be a commercial one. Compensated programs like ours would fall outside the parental-order route for arrangements entered after commencement.
Hundreds of Irish children have been born through surrogacy abroad under the current vacuum. The path home is established, if asymmetric:
In the program country itself the picture is simpler: Ukraine (Article 123 of the Family Code), Georgia (statutory since 1997) and Armenia all issue the birth certificate in both your names from birth, with no parental claim by the surrogate.
The Act creates a regulator — the AHRRA — and a concept of "permitted" surrogacy. For international arrangements entered after commencement, permission comes first, not after:
We are a compensated agency, and we will not pretend the 2024 Act is friendly to what we do. Today, with the Act not commenced, Irish couples join programs abroad under the existing case-by-case reality — many have, including through the war years. After commencement, a new compensated arrangement abroad would sit outside the Act's parental-order route, whatever an agency's marketing says. That is why our first instruction to every Irish couple is the same: sit down with an Irish solicitor who practises surrogacy law before any embryo transfer — not to tick a box, but to time your decision against a law that could be commenced during your program. We will coordinate with them directly and put everything we say in writing.
Every contract, payment and milestone in our programs is documented and itemised — the file your Irish solicitor will want to see, we produce as a matter of course.
Prices in US dollars, paid in milestones. Full inclusions on the cost page; Ukraine, Georgia and Armenia compared on the programs page.
No. With the 2024 Act not yet commenced, there is no offense attached to joining a program abroad, and Irish families have done so for years. The legal work is on the return side — the father's declaration of parentage, the child's citizenship and passport, and the mother's position — which is exactly what your Irish solicitor and our documentation are for.
Nobody can tell you honestly — including us. It was enacted on 2 July 2024; a commencement date for the past-arrangements part was once signalled for mid-2025; as of June 2026 families' groups are still publicly urging the Government to switch the Act on, and an Amendment Bill is in pre-legislative scrutiny. Treat any agency that promises you a date with suspicion, and build your timing with your solicitor instead.
This is the question your Irish solicitor must answer before you start, and the reason we insist on that meeting. The Act distinguishes arrangements entered before and after commencement, and its retrospective provisions are aimed at recognising past arrangements. Where your case would fall depends on dates, drafting and the final shape of the Amendment Bill — territory for a professional, not a brochure.
Under today's law, not directly — guardianship has been the working arrangement, and we will not dress that up as something better. The 2024 Act's recognition provisions were written precisely to give these mothers a real legal route for past arrangements; their commencement is what Irish surrogacy families are campaigning for. In the program country itself, both your names are on the birth certificate from day one.
Because the couples we serve talk to each other, and an Irish family blindsided by a commencement order would be a failure we caused. Our founder answers his own phone for the life of every program; that only works if nobody was misled at the start. If, after the solicitor's advice, the right answer for you is to wait — we will say so and keep your file open at no charge.
We will map your medical picture and country options, give you a written summary, and — for Irish couples — a list of the questions to put to your solicitor before anything else happens. Dublin evenings suit us fine.
Novaparent is an agency registered in Ukraine and works exclusively with married heterosexual couples with a medical indication. More about us in the founder's letter.