Debate contribution: In Vitro Fertilisation Equality

Debate contribution by Mr Mark Durkan on 22 June 2026.

MLA

Mr Mark Durkan

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

22 June 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

In Vitro Fertilisation Equality

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5638469

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I beg to move

Thanks, Mr Deputy Speaker. For many people, there is no greater privilege or joy in life than becoming a parent, but that is not a gift that is afforded to everyone. For thousands of individuals and couples across Northern Ireland, the dream of starting a family is overshadowed by the heartbreak of infertility. However, families were given hope through the hard-won commitment secured in the New Decade, New Approach (NDNA) agreement to expand publicly funded IVF provision to three cycles. It was recognition that access to fertility treatment should not depend on wealth or postcode. It was a commitment that people organised their lives around and believed would be delivered. Six years on, that promise, like so much in NDNA, remains undelivered, leaving many couples watching the clock tick down on time that they cannot afford to waste while they wait for a commitment that should have been honoured long ago. Every month that passes is another month that reduces their chances of success. As they age out of the process, they watch that promised opportunity quietly slip away. For those fortunate enough never to have experienced infertility, it can be difficult to understand the emotional toll that it takes. Having spoken to many people who have been impacted, I know that every hospital appointment carries hope and fear. The process leaves couples wondering not only how they will cope emotionally but whether they will be able to afford a chance financially. The cost of private IVF is simply beyond the reach of many. It forces people into impossible decisions — remortgaging homes, exhausting life savings, spiralling into debt or delaying treatment while desperately trying to save enough money for another cycle. Age does not pause because someone's finances do. The clock keeps ticking. NICE recommends that eligible patients should receive up to three full cycles of IVF. Success rates improve over multiple cycles. Thus, three cycles is not a luxury but represents a realistic opportunity for conception. However, in the North, we continue to lag behind. Families here continue to receive less support than families in Scotland and Wales, which offer three and two cycles respectively. Over recent months, I have heard from many individuals and families whose stories illustrate the human reality behind today's motion. I am delighted to have some of those ladies in the Public Gallery today. One woman told me that, after paying the mortgage, childcare and household bills, it would take almost two years to save enough for one more private cycle. Another explained that her husband's infertility arose directly from life-saving cancer treatment. IVF is their only chance of having a child. Many women have endured the heartbreak of repeated miscarriages but cannot access further investigations. Those are not isolated cases; they reveal a system that, too often, compounds distress rather than alleviates it. We also need to be honest about the wider state of fertility care. The system is under real strain, and nowhere is that clearer than in the Western Health and Social Care Trust where, as of 2024, 239 women were waiting for more than a year to be seen for a fertility assessment. That is a year of waiting before treatment can even be considered to be commenced. Others have asked a fair question about what happens to those who have been through treatment already. Will the promise, if ever delivered, simply benefit future patients, while those who have spent years waiting are left behind? Surely, fairness demands that we examine backdating eligibility so that families who have already carried the burden of the delays are not penalised because the Executive failed to deliver what they had promised. Families who have endured the emotional and financial challenges of fertility treatment should not have to spend money on fighting through the courts to secure legal recognition of their family — an interlinked issue on which I am doing a piece of work with the Finance Minister. It is another injustice that must be addressed.

I pay tribute to Fairness (IN) Fertility, campaigners and all the organisations involved for their advocacy and persistence. The motion is about keeping promises that have already been made. Let us deliver three publicly funded IVF cycles and fair transitional arrangements for those who have been left waiting. Those people are still hoping and waiting.

They deserve more than sympathy. They deserve action, and they deserve it now.

736 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 16:07 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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