Leo Varadkar said that publicly funded hospitals should follow the ethical rules set by the medical council

Public hospitals may be taken out of religious ownership to ensure that the Catholic church is no longer at “the centre of public life”, Leo Varadkar has said.

A report outlining a plan to separate church and state in healthcare is due before the government next month. It has examined a code of ethics from the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference that suggests banning abortion in hospitals with a religious ethos.

Yesterday The Times reported that the guidelines advised doctors to flout a planned requirement to refer a woman for abortion services if they conscientiously objected to terminations.

The guidelines for up to 20 main hospitals connected to religious orders include a ban on most assisted reproduction procedures. The few that are allowed are not to