Tánaiste Joan Burton has said she agrees with Minister for Health Leo Varadkar’s comments that the current abortion laws are “too restrictive”.

Ms Burton also said she would like to see the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution – which gives equal rights to the mother and the unborn – repealed.

However, in a Christmas briefing with political correspondents, she declined to comment on the right to life case currently in the public domain.

On the issue in general, she said: “The people that I want to see around the bed are the doctors, not the lawyers.

“In my view, the Eighth Amendment does not actually serve women well when issues of their life, their safety, their health, are in question.”

“The thing that I find extraordinarily difficult about this kind of a case is that [it is] as a consequence of the Eighth Amendment, and I’m somebody who was opposed to the Eighth Amendment,” Ms Burton said.

"The Labour Party was opposed to the Eighth Amendment. We said it was wrong to put it into the Constitution, but the people of Ireland in their wisdom decided differently – and that's their prerogative in any referendum to make a decision as they see fit."

“But what we have now, and will have, without a doubt, is, over a period of time cases which will throw up the most agonising and difficult dilemmas. And at the centre of that will inevitably be young women and the babies that they’re carrying.

“Now, if my daughter, or my nieces, or anyone in my circle, my friends, my family, my neighbours, is facing a pregnancy and the pregnancy and the delivery become very difficult, thankfully in Ireland our maternity services are pretty good, very good, but we all know that difficult situations arise.”

Informed of case

Earlier this week Ms Burton told the Dáil that she had been informed of the current case of a pregnant woman on life support, and whether doctors can turn off the life support, by Mr Varadkar on Sunday.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny also said he would not be making any “knee-jerk” reaction to sensitive cases abortion law.

Before the current case entered the public domain, he said: “I don’t believe that in the absence of really verifiable medical evidence and information that we should be looking at the issue of constitutional change now.”

Hard on family

Ms Burton yesterday said: “First of all, in the context of the current case, I know the court proceedings are under way, so I don’t want to comment on that specifically, other than to say, it’s Christmas time, it’s very hard for that particular family with what they’re going through.

“But what is obvious is that, particularly with the development of modern medicine and the huge improvements that have been made in modern medicine, cases are just going to arise from time to time that no constitution can actually set down a definitive answer, constitutions being meant for other purposes than for the purposes of assessing detailed medical treatments.

“I think the wellbeing of the woman, of the mother, of the family, of the baby should be at the heart of the debate.”