Gynaecology services have been “on the back foot in Ireland” for a long time, with women, often elderly, left “sitting on waiting lists” with debilitating conditions such as prolapsed wombs, according to the first female chair of the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

The Government’s proposed 12-week access abortion law that it wants to introduce if the Eighth Amendment is removed could be changed to take account of new medical breakthroughs in years to come, an expert has said.