Half-baked Republican Presidential Fruitcakes (and fellow confections)

 A meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy was suspended twice after a Senator was accused of being “disrespectful” towards witnesses.

Independent Senator Sharon Keogan told the witnesses that she “wholeheartedly objects to the commercialisation of the human child and the relegation of women to the status of simply incubator or wombs for hire irrespective of whether you are heterosexual, single, lesbian gay or trans”.

“Surrogacy I believe is harmful, it is exploitative and it is unethical. I don’t believe it is everyone’s right to have a child. It is a privilege to give birth and it can be dangerous even to those with the best medical attention.”

She said she did not want to see the birth mother “airbrushed” or “whitewashed” out of the process.

Elaine Cohalan, chairperson of the Assisted Human Reproduction Coalition, said committee members had a responsibility to lead the debate in a “dignified way”.

“Inflammatory language and using undefined terms don’t benefit the debate. Our members are ordinary people who have been in some cases through harrowing experiences. We are Irish citizens, your constituents, you are our representatives.”

Ciara Merrigan, a representative of Irish Families Through Surrogacy, said she talks to her children every day about their surrogate mother. “We honour her every day. She is part of our lives.” She said Ms Keogan’s comments could be “slightly insulting to me and to my colleagues”.

Senator Lynn Ruane said it took an emotional toll for the witnesses to tell their story.

“Outright opposing something because of a personal bigotry or belief is not critically engaging with a topic,” she said.

Ms Funchion said she would have to suspend the meeting despite the fact people had waited a long time for it to happen. She told Ms Keogan “you know yourself you have been disrespectful at times over the last number of meetings”.

Ms Keogan told Mr Gearoid Kenny Moore, the representative for Irish Gay Dads, “Gearoid, you are extremely lucky to be here today. You don’t know how lucky you are to be here today. I’ll tell you why.”

The meeting was then suspended.

After it was resumed, Ms Keogan said she wanted to finish her statement and she said there was a different group with 1,500 followers who wanted to appear but the “committee would not allow them...so when I made that comment, I was saying how lucky you are.”

Ms Keogan said she did not believe she had to apologise and believed she was the subject of “vicious personal attacks”. She was asked to leave and the meeting was again suspended.

Keogan made national headlines in January 2020, after she posted on her Facebook account asking whether disabled children should be microchipped following the death of Nóra Quoirin in Malaysia.

In September 2021 Keogan was criticised after she stated that there is "an organised takeover at every level in our society" by the LGBT community in response to the Katherine Zappone Affair. Keogan went on to indicate that she believed that "governments around the world" are trying to "catapult" LGBT people into high-level jobs. Former Leas-Chathaoirleach of Seanad Éireann Jerry Buttimer responded that "She is entitled to her own opinions but she can also be asked to explain herself and to be challenged" and criticised her statement as suggesting there is some kind of on-going conspiracy and for echoing far-right sentiments. The Meath branches of the Social Democrats and People before Profit also issued statements condemning Keogan's assertations, with the Meath-based President of Ógra Fianna Fáil Bryan Mallon stated that Keogh had looked at ZapponeGate and had “added 2 + 2 together and got 5, ridiculously using it as an opportunity to dismiss the issues that members of the LGBTQIA+ community suffer daily, not least fair representation in government". In a statement given to The Times, Keogan claimed she had "an established record in supporting and participating in LGBT education programmes within my community" but was "opposed to governments, whether the Biden administration or the Irish government, appointing personnel based on their sexual orientation".