Leo Varadkar reserves his opinion on Eighth Amendment

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has declined to publicly back official plans to repeal the Eighth Amendment, allow unrestricted abortion access up to 12 weeks and other law changes, until he meets Fine Gael colleagues in January.

Mr Varadkar failed to support the recommendations of the Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment yesterday, just 24 hours after they were agreed to a series of votes by the cross-party group.

In a historic meeting on Wednesday, the committee agreed to recommend repealing the Eighth Amendment, allowing unrestricted access to abortion up to 12 weeks, and decriminalising terminations in Ireland for women and by licensed doctors.