Dr David Walsh, a consultant gynaecologist at the SIMS International Fertility Clinic in Rathgar, Dublin, said he had noticed a definite rise in the number of couples seeking IVF surrogacy in recent years, and that Ireland had "a moral responsibility" to provide this treatment to women.

"For women who are unable to have children after being treated for cancer, IVF surrogacy is perfect, " he said. "Also, for example, those women who have had their wombs removed by Dr Neary could still have children through IVF surrogacy."

Walsh said that the SIMS clinic currently has two women 'on hold', who want to go ahead with the surrogacy arrangement. "We've asked them to just wait until we get a reply from the Executive Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, " he said.

"The subject is now being assessed. There is no law that says we can't do it. It is a self-imposed ethical barrier that stands in the way of allowing this to happen, and we have said in our proposal to the executive that this needs to change."

Walsh stressed that the clinic was campaigning for the introduction of IVF surrogacy, which involves an embryo that is formed from the egg and sperm of a couple being transplanted into the womb of the surrogate mother. This is as opposed to traditional surrogacy, in which the surrogate mother's own egg is fertilised with the sperm of the intended male parent.

The SIMS campaign has the backing of Dr Peter Brinsden, medical director of Bourn Hall Clinic in Cambridge, UK, which has been running a surrogacy programme for 18 years. Brinsden, who regularly works with the Clane Fertility Clinic in Kildare, said that he believed Ireland was "finally ready for surrogacy".

"I quite passionately feel that a woman who can conceive a child, but cannot bear a child, should be able to take advantage of the medical practice that would allow her to have children, " he said.

However, there was a blow for advocates of surrogacy this week when an Oireachtas subcommittee recommended to the government that surrogate pregnancies should be outlawed. The subcommittee's advice, which will be brought to the Oireachtas Committee on Health this week, follows a recommendation made by the Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction that surrogacy be allowed in Ireland.