Three hospitals around the country have refused to carry out abortions under the forthcoming new law, according to Peadar Tóibín, the former Sinn Fein TD.

Speaking during a Health Committee meeting last week he said doctors in Kilkenny, Letterkenny and Cavan had decided that they would not offer abortions. He said they told this to Peter Boylan, former head of the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, who has been been in discussions with maternity units on behalf of the Government. Dr Boylan declined to comment. Since then, when contacted by The Times, Ireland, the hospitals themselves have either made no comment or offered legal responses.

A spokesman for the Ireland East Hospitals Group, which includes Kilkenny, said that “all hospitals [in the group] will comply with the law of the land”. Queries to the hospitals in Letterkenny and Cavan were diverted to the HSE national press office, which said: “The HSE, in consultation with the Department of Health and other stakeholders, is working on developing an implementation plan for the delivery of the termination of pregnancy service by January 1, 2019.”

When asked again if doctors in Letterkenny and Cavan had said that they would not provide such services, the HSE did not comment.

Simon Harris, the Health Minister, appeared undeterred by the apparent refusals, commenting that there had been many claims that hospitals would refuse to offer abortion services when the government passed a law to allow abortions in cases of threatened suicide in 2013.