A married lesbian couple have spoken out about the uncertainty that surrounds custody of their children, should anything happen to one of them.

Audrey Rooney and Ranae Von Meding used reciprocal IVF to bring their two daughters into the world - Audrey provided the eggs, and Ranae gave birth.

Even under the new laws around IVF and the children of gay couples, which have yet to come into place, Audrey has no rights under Irish law to automatically have custody of her children.

If something were to happen to Ranae it is unclear what fate would befall her children - they could be given into foster care or given to relative.

"We got married in 2016...it was a beautiful time to be Irish," Ranae said.

"Marriage equality had come in. We felt as though we had been accepted as equals in our own country. I was also five months pregnant.

"Naively, we thought that because we were now married, that parental equality would be a given. We have two beautiful daughters. Ava is two and our youngest, Arya, is five months old.

"We were wrong."

This is because Reciprocal IVF is not legal or recognised in Ireland, even under the new legislation.

Reciprocal IVF (also called Shared Motherhood) is where one partner's eggs are collected and then fertilised with donor sperm. Viable embryos are then transferred back to the other partner's womb.

“In their eyes they consider my wife as an ‘egg donor’ - which is outrageous," Ranae went on.

"We used her genetic material to conceive our children. Isn’t that what heterosexual couples do when doing IVF? They use their spouse’s genetic material to conceive.

"The only difference here is our gender."

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She added that the new legislation was billed as a big step forward for equality, but that isn't the whole truth.

"It is not equality. Because it’s not for everybody," she said.

"It’s only for a select few who meet the very narrow criteria. The really cruel thing is that when this law does finally come in, it will not apply to us.

"In a cruel twist, we will not be eligible to apply for it because we travelled abroad to have our children and because we used Audrey’s eggs to conceive. It will not apply to other female couples who did at home, IUI (Intrauterine insemination), or used a known donor. It totally excludes male couples.

"We are a family. We may be a modern one, but we are family all the same... and it’s time that our Irish laws recognised that."

You can sign Audrey and Ranae's petition here.