Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has indicated he will help the Government guillotine debate on abortion so that legislation making it widely available will not be delayed.

He condemned recent filibustering by a group of rural TDs on road safety laws and said he will not allow the same thing happen for abortion.

The potential for using parliamentary debate to delay bills has developed because of the Government’s minority position in the Dáil. Mr Martin had repeatedly objected to use of the guillotine – deployed to shorten debate – by the last Fine Gael-Labour government, which had a large majority.

He told a lunch hosted by the Association of European Journalists that the “will of the people” must be respected concerning the referendum. The Fianna Fáil leader said “soundings” he had taken indicated there will be “nowhere near” the opposition to abortion legislation as there had been to proposals to tighten drink-driving laws. “The drink-driving one was frankly ridiculous,” he said. “But in respect of any Bill, where there is excessive filibustering and obvious filibustering, there is always a provision to call a halt to that by a simple motion in standing orders.”

A referendum to delete the ‘mothers in the home’ clause of the Constitution may not be put to the voters in October after all. The Government intended to delete the article in a referendum this autumn, but the Oireachtas business committee has decided they should give the issue a thorough examination rather than simple rubber-stamping the Government’s plans. They will not scrutinise the proposal in September, and a referendum might take place in 2019 instead. When the issue was previously looked at by the Constitutional Convention, 98% voted to expand the protection to include fathers and all other ‘carers’ in the home. The clause endeavours to protect mothers from being forced due to economic pressure from having to work outside the home.

Female same sex couples will now be able to register both their names on their child’s passport and birth certificate after the introduction of a Bill to amend drafting errors in previous legislation. The Bill was passed on Wednesday night by the Dáil and is expected to be passed by the Seanad before the summer recess. Once regulations are finalised for the autumn, female same sex couples will be allowed to retrospectively register both their names on their child’s birth certificate and passport. The original clauses in the Child and Family Relationships Act had not been commenced because of errors which meant that some rights were afforded only to the birth mother rather than to the “intending” parents.

Catholic primary schools will not be able to give priority access to children of Catholic families from September next year, following the passage of the so-called “Baptism barrier” legislation in the Dáil on Tuesday night.

The School Admissions Bill prohibits Catholic denominational schools from giving enrolment priority to baptised children in cases where they are over-subscribed. However, minority faiths will still be allowed to prioritise members of their religion in order to protect their ethos in cases where they are over-subscribed.

There is also a provision to allow all-Irish primary and secondary schools to give enrolment priority to Irish-speaking children. Mr Bruton said this would set a “high bar” for children who use Irish in their daily lives and not just at school. Parents would have to provide evidence of this.

The Taoiseach has condemned the special protection given by the Constitution to the family “based on marriage” as anachronistic for not including other kinds of families. He made the remark during a Dail exchange on the women in the home provision in the constitution. He indicated that Government would look at the definition of the family next year with a view to another referendum.

He was responding to a question from Eamon Ryan of the Green Party who recommended that instead of deleting the Constitution’s article on protecting mothers in the home, it should be reworded to support all kinds of gender-neutral, caring work. However, the Taoiseach said the Government want to delete the article as they believe it is “sexist and anachronistic”. He said that there needs to be a re-consideration of caring and the definition of the family at some stage. But for now, he added, “It is time to separate this idea that women are inherently linked with caring and family because a woman’s place is where she wants it to be and that is not necessarily in the home.”

He also said the definition of the family in the constitution, as based on marriage, “is anachronistic too” as, he claimed, it does not see one parent or lone parent families as families. Because of this, he said, the Government will look at redefining the family in 2019.

Medical professionals who have a conscientious objection to providing abortions will be legally obliged to refer patients to pro-choice doctors, under legislation published by the Government on Tuesday. The Cabinet approved the heads of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill, which provides for abortion in wide-ranging circumstances right up to birth.

The Bill does allow medical practitioners to conscientiously objection to executing abortions themselves. However, it also states that they must make “arrangements for the transfer of care of the pregnant woman concerned as may be necessary to enable the woman to avail of the termination of pregnancy concerned”.

Speaking after the Cabinet meeting, Minister for Health Simon Harris confirmed services for the termination of pregnancy “will be provided on a universal basis – so that cost is not a barrier for women to access these services”.

Responding to fears that persons recognised by the law as transgender men, but who are biologically female, might not have a right to abortion, it is understood Mr Harris has been advised the Bill will provide for trans people but is open to examining it further.

The Bill cannot be introduced in the Oireachtas until the legal challenges to the referendum result have been completed.

Minister for Health Simon Harris is to ask the Cabinet to approve State funding for abortion. The Minister brought the heads of the Health (Regulation of the Termination of Pregnancy) Bill to today’s Cabinet meeting, which will legalise abortion in wide-ranging circumstances. That includes abortion on demand for the first 12 weeks, where there is a risk to mental health up to 24 weeks, and where there is an emergency risk to mental health up to nine months. It will also allow the abortion, up to birth, of babies with serious disabilities if it is thought they would likely live no more then 28 days after birth.

Government sources said the Minister had been clear that cost should not be a barrier to women wanting abortions. It is understood Mr Harris is examining whether services can be provided under the Maternity and Infant Scheme. Currently, that programme allows for maternity services free of charge when provided by a family doctor and a hospital obstetrician but this could be expanded to women who want an abortion of their unborn child.

A call has been made to publish a mandated review of Ireland’s gender-changing law which is one of the most radical in the world. The law, introduced in 2015, allows individuals change their legal gender on request, and minors aged 16 and over, after a routine court process.  The law mandated that a review of its operation be conducted after two years and be delivered to the Government. That review was brought to the cabinet by the Minister for Social protection Regina Doherty yesterday. It is thought to include a recommendation that those 16 and over should no longer have to undergo a court process to change their legal gender. Even more radically, it recommends that children under 16 should also be facilitated in changing their gender and that courts should become involved in adjudicating gender-recognition applications for children only when a parent does not give consent or there is a concern about mental health.

Sinn Féin Senator Fintan Warfield has called for the report’s immediate publication. Mr Warfield said the 2015 Act was “one of the most progressive pieces of legislation in the world” with the exception of the provisions for children under 16 and those in the 16/17 age category. He hopes that legislative changes to facilitate minors changing their legal gender would happen without delay. This, he said, “will end forced outing of oneself if certain legal documents (including birth certificates) align with a person’s true gender”.

Unborn babies suffering serious disabilities who are not likely to live beyond 28 days after birth will be eligible for abortion at any stage up to birth under the abortion bill being prepared by Minister Simon Harris. The provision for abortion in the case of so-called “fatal foetal abnormality” or babies with life limiting conditions was never clearly defined prior to this. In the draft scheme of the bill, the case was described by the phrase “likely to die shortly before or after birth” where, in legal terms, “likely” represents nothing more than a greater than 50% chance. The “shortly after birth” will now be defined as any time up to 28 days.

Minister Harris will bring the Heads of the Health (Regulation of the Termination of Pregnancy) Bill to Cabinet on Tuesday, for the approval of the Government.

Legislation to enable the use of donor sperm, eggs and embryos, that was rushed into law prior to the Marriage referendum in 2015, will be corrected by another piece of legislation that is set to come before the Dail soon.

Provisions for the creation of a register to allow donor-conceived children obtain personal family information once they turn 18 and to ban anonymous gamete donation was contained in 2015 Children and Family Relationships Act. But the minister at the time did not commence enactment of parts two and three of the legislation which would have brought the measures into force immediately. “During the preparation of regulations to facilitate the commencement of parts two and three of the Act, a number of technical drafting issues came to light that required amendments to the Act of 2015 through primary legislation,” a Department of Health spokesman said. Mr Harris received Government approval last week to draft an amendment to the Bill to remedy the defect. The Minister “hopes to be in a position to introduce this legislation into the Dáil as soon as possible and commence parts two and three of the Children and Family Relationships Act in the autumn”. The department was responding to the announcement last week by international clinic Institut Marquès that it was offering women undergoing IVF in Ireland the use of anonymously donated eggs without having to travel abroad. This new bill would aim to prohibit such a practice.