A Government package aimed at forcing taxpayers to fund free abortions will cost the exchequer about €50 million a year, the Cabinet was told as it formally approved abortion legislation at its meeting yesterday. The package will include sex education and free contraception.

Minister for Health Simon Harris told his colleagues of an ongoing delay in negotiating fees with GPs, but he was hopeful of reaching agreement in the coming weeks.

Mr Harris declined to reveal the cost of providing free abortion, but The Irish Times has established that Ministers were told yesterday that the full-year cost for the GP service will be approximately €5 million.

All abortions after nine weeks of pregnancy will take place in a hospital. The full-year cost of performing abortions in acute hospitals is expected to be €7.35 million. The vast majority of abortions take place in the first three months of pregnancy and most are induced through the abortion pill. The Government is also committed to implementing recommendations from the Oireachtas committee that considered the Eighth Amendment on maternity services, which are expected to cost €26.5 million in a full year, plus €3 million in minor capital costs and €1.4 million to cover perinatal hospice services.

It also recommended a programme of sexual health promotion and crisis pregnancy prevention which costs €9.5 million annually.