HEALTH MINISTER LEO Varadkar says that the abortion laws in Ireland are too restrictive.

Speaking to journalists at Government Buildings today, Varadkar said that while he would like to see something done about the laws, he is not going to lobby fellow party members.

He added that he favours the Taoiseach’s plan to establish a constitutional convention on the controversial eighth amendment should he be returned to power at the general election early next year.

Enda Kenny has come under pressure to confront the issue in recent months, with James Reilly calling for the amendment to be repealed in an interview last month.

Just yesterday, Kenny said that he would permit a free vote in the Dáil on the issue once the convention has delivered its report.

Varadkar said that he personally would like to see the law changed.

“My personal view is the one that I expressed over a year ago. That is that the laws around abortion are too restrictive and need to be examined.

Particularly where it relates to the health of the mother and the very sad situations where an unborn child isn’t going to survive after birth.

“I don’t have all the answers, nobody does. What the Taoiseach has said we’ll do, I fully support.”

Varadkar said that while he recognised there are a multitude of opinions on the issue, it is not one that is simply going to disappear.

“In my party, as is the case in Ireland, there is a diversity of views.

“It’s a very sensitive issue, it’s a very divisive one, but it’s not one that we can pretend is going to go away.”

Read: “She drove from Waterford to Dublin to fly to London on her own to have an abortion”

Read: Irish women have had almost 25,000 abortions in the UK in the last five years