Maureen O'Connor, 36, and her partner, Justin Pearlman, were contacted by women last week offering to help.

They have now chosen one of the women to have their baby.

"We're absolutely delighted", O'Connor told the Sunday Tribune. "She's a local, Irish, woman who ticks all our boxes. She's the right age - not too young, yet not old enough to be in the high-risk category medically.

"She has children of her own which surrogacy organisations say is a good thing.

Young, childless women are more likely to have difficulties handing over a baby. We were surprised that so many of the women who contacted us were very young and had no kids of their own.

"The woman we chose wanted to become a surrogate for years. After having her own baby, she asked the midwife about surrogacy but the midwife said that wasn't done in Ireland. Both myself and my partner trust this woman hugely. At this stage, I don't want to go into any more detail."

O'Connor has contacted the clinic in Turkey which she plans to use. It carries out the surrogacy procedures in Cyprus.

"The clinic will get details of my menstrual cycle and the surrogate's and we'll have various tests. I'm still cautious, as it's at the early stages, but I hope treatment will begin in the autumn.

"We have to draw up a surrogacy agreement. I've spoken to a local solicitor. But, because this is a first in Ireland, we're still in the dark. I might also need advice from solicitors in England who have previous experience in these matters."

Surrogacy agreements have no legal standing for either party. Technically, a surrogate could decide to keep the child or, if the child was born disabled, the prospective parents could say they didn't want it.

O'Connor said she and her partner had considered all the things which could go wrong before deciding to go ahead and they had every confidence in the woman they had chosen.

There are two types of surrogacy. O'Connor is opting for 'host' surrogacy where the surrogate is purely a 'carrier' and the child is genetically the same as the parents.

O'Connor's egg and her partner's sperm will be fertilised in the clinic and inserted in the surrogate.

This procedure is for women like O'Connor who are fertile themselves but for whom medical problems mean they can't carry a child.

O'Connor, who has a 12year-old son, lost a child after complications late in her last pregnancy forced her into premature labour on Christmas Eve 2004. The baby died 12 days later. Doctors advised her not to risk pregnancy again.

The other type of surrogacy is 'straight' surrogacy. The surrogate's egg is fertilised by the husband's sperm. This procedure is used mostly by infertile women, but sometimes women who still have healthy eggs choose it because it has higher success rates than 'host' surrogacy and is cheaper.

Rather than expensive IVF treatment in clinics, the surrogate simply injects the sperm at home with a syringe. But it means genetically it's not the prospective mother's child.

O'Connor distributed leaflets to houses in the Mahon area of Cork city asking possible surrogates to come forward. She offered 5,000 to cover the surrogate mother's expenses and time off work. She also put up a notice in a corner shop in Douglas, Cork, and went on local radio to discuss her plight.

"I had to go public in my search but I didn't want to.

Having a child should remain personal.

"I've found the invasion of privacy very stressful. You go out to the supermarket now and think people are looking at you. Many people have been very supportive, nobody has said anything nasty, but I value my privacy."

Surrogacy is allowed in many countries around the world but remains a legally grey area in Ireland. Many Irish women find surrogates in America.

O'Connor said the process would be less traumatic if surrogacy was available in Ireland and couples weren't forced to travel abroad.

She is planning in the coming months to set up an organisation to campaign on the issue and to help women in similar situations to herself.

"It's up to Irish women to lobby for surrogacy at home.

It's time a group of us got together. If we have to go and stand outside Government Buildings to get things changed, then that's what we'll have to do."