A referendum to repeal the Eight Amendment is likely to take place within the lifetime of the current minority Government, Minister for Social Protection Leo Varadkar has said.

Mr Varadkar on Wednesday defended the pace at which the Government is handling the abortion issue amid concerns the matter will not be addressed by the administration given it could fall due to the precarious nature of its numbers in the Dáil.

Fine Gael and the Independent Alliance on Tuesday agreed to block an Anti-Austerity Alliance-People Before Profit Bill which proposed a referendum to delete the constitutional ban on abortion.

The move means the question is highly unlikely to come before the public in a referendum until 2018 at the earliest.

Mr Varadkar said the Citizens’ Assembly, which was set up to examine a number of matters including what should be done about the Eighth Amendment, was a quality approach.

“I think it’s important to have a process that works and is one of quality,” he said. “There are a lot of people who want to retain the Eighth Amendment – I don’t agree with that view myself – there are others who want to remove it but when you ask them what that means they aren’t able to tell you.”

Replacement

The Minister said the fact that members of both anti-abortion and pro-choice campaigns were unable to answer the question of what would happen after a vote to repeal the amendment showed why a process such as the assembly was necessary.

“I wouldn’t be clear if we were to have a referendum next month or in two months time what that would actually mean. People can’t answer that question for me even though they’re campaigning for it. Does it mean going back to the 1867 legislation? I think that really underlines why a Citizens’ Assembly is actually a good process,” he said.

Asked whether the process will be complete within the term of the Government, he said he expected it would, adding: “that dpends of course on how long the Government lasts”.

“If you look at the timeline it’s anticipated that the Citizens’ Assembly will report by the middle of next year. Now obviously I don’t want to pre-suppose the outcome of the Citizens’ Assembly but if they were to recommend a change that required a change to the Constitution you would then have the Oireachtas committee and that’ being set up already considering that, and that would allow for a referendum most likely in 2018.”

‘Ministerial seats’

AAA-PBP TDs were very critical on Tuesday of the Fine Gael-Independent agreement to block the repeal Bill.

“Ministers, who said they are in favour of repeal, will line up and vote as part of the government against repealing the Eighth amendment. They are putting their ministerial seats before the health and lives of women,” said Anti Austerity Alliance TD Ruth Coppinger.

“This vote will guarantee that no referendum will take place during the life-time of this government. By the time the Citizens’ Assembly reports back, the Oireachtas Committee sits and then a Bill is passed through both houses, the earliest opportunity for a referendum will be late 2018 or early 2019, by that stage this government may not be in power. They have sent a clear message to women telling them they can continue to wait.”