Fine Gael has said it is not convinced that another constitutional referendum or the introduction of legislation will solve the abortion issue. Its spokesman on health, Mr Alan Shatter, said the party was not convinced there was any ideal constitutional wording to which a Yes or No answer could be given that could fully and properly address the issue and result in a national democratic consensus, or which would even obtain majority support.
"We are also concerned that legislation, when applied in practice or interpreted by the courts, could have the opposite effect to that intended," he said in response to the publication of the Green Paper.
Mr Shatter said the party noted the options outlined in the Green Paper and would listen with care and caution to the discussion that would now take place.
"Fine Gael's priority is the health and welfare of women and their children and we want to put in place enhanced support and counselling services to encourage women in crisis pregnancies to give birth to their babies with maximum community support."
He said the public argument and debate on whether there should be another referendum or legislation, or a combination of both, had ignored the reality that almost 6,000 Irish women now had abortions in England annually.
Before the 1997 election, the then Taoiseach, Mr John Bruton, said he thought it would probably be unwise, in practical terms, to proceed with another referendum or with legislation on the basis that neither would improve the practical situation.
Meanwhile the Labour Party leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, called for legislation to give effect to the Supreme Court decision in the X case and said another referendum was not the way to deal with the abortion issue.
Welcoming the eventual publication of the Green Paper, Mr Quinn accused the Government of leading the people on "a merry dance" on the issue.
"That this Green Paper has been launched without even a press conference or a statement from the responsible Minister is indicative of how the Government is handling this issue," he said.
"A referendum has been promised, a process is under way, but there remains no real prospect of one taking place," the Labour leader added.
"It seems the Government's commitment to a referendum is dependent on consensus being achieved in advance of it. That, as we know too well, is highly unlikely."
Mr Quinn said the Labour Party still believed that the Constitution was not the appropriate place to try to deal with a complex medical and social problem like abortion.
He said the Expert Group on the Constitution, in its 1996 report, pointed to the difficulty of the constitutional amendment approach and recommended instead the introduction of legislation covering such matters as definitions and protection for appropriate medical intervention.
"This approach, which essentially proposed to give legislative effect to the Supreme Court decision in the X case remains the one favoured by the Labour Party."
He said if people were to successfully tackle the problem of crisis pregnancies and reduce the number of women opting for abortions, they had to deal in realities.
"Around 100,000 Irish women have had an abortion in the UK since 1970. Constitutional amendments and virtual blanket legislative prohibitions have not - nor can they - reduce the level of terminations among Irish women when abortion is readily available just a short plane or boat journey away.
"The best way to reduce the number of abortions among Irish women is to reduce the number of crisis pregnancies. This requires greatly improved information about and access to contraception, as well as a far more forthright approach to education about sexuality and personal responsibility."
A spokesman for the Progressive Democrats said there was clearly no simple formula that would resolve the issue but the party was hopeful that at the end of this process sufficient consensus would be reached on the way forward.
"The purpose of the Green Paper is to encourage debate, and the party will take its part in the deliberations".
In a statement, the Government said it wished to seek the broadest possible consensus on the way forward and believed the process of consultation and dialogue begun by the Green Paper would lay the foundations for a better and more reasoned understanding of the issues.
It said it was committed to the development of a programme to combat the incidence of crisis pregnancy and to seek to reduce the number of pregnancies which ended in abortion.