Former Justice Minister Alan Shatter has revealed he looked at including cases of fatal foetal abnormalities when drafting Ireland's most recent laws on abortion.

His comments come as the Taoiseach says the country cannot go back to the 1980s and be “convulsed” for years by the abortion debate.

Enda Kenny says issues of pregnancy in cases of fatal foetal abnormalities, rape and incest are all “sensitive” and “controversial” matters which will be dealt with by the next government.

The Taoiseach says the bill voted down in the Dáil yesterday was "clearly" unconstitutional. He says future debates must be handled sensitively:

Deputy Shatter yesterday made a speech in which he said it was an 'enormous cruelty' that a woman has to bring a pregnancy affected by a fatal foetal abnormality to full term.

As the Dáil voted down the bill proposing change from Clare Daly, Deputy Shatter told a constituency meeting it's not tenable for those in political life to 'deprive' people of a referendum on an issue for fear of an 'emotive debate'.

Deputy Shatter told a constituency meeting in Dublin last night, that he believes terminations should be allowed in the case of fatal foetal abnormalities and for women who are pregnant as a result of incest or rape.

He said politicians can no longer deprive people of a referendum because they fear the emotive debate that would ensue.

My Constituency speech tonite supports Marriage Equality & says next Gov must hold referendums on divorce & abortion http://t.co/4soEO2kNkA

— Alan Shatter (@AlanShatterTD) February 10, 2015

Mr Shatter spoke to Pat Kenny at length today about the issue, stating: "It's an enormous cruelty."

He also stated when the issue was raised in 2013, he spoke to the Attorney General who stated the constitutional difficulty surrounding the inclusion in the Eighth Amendment. He confirmed that this could have also been what Enda Kenny was told.

Mr Shatter continued: "I think progress has been made in the lifetime of this government with the 2013 act. It isn't enough. We need to be honest as politicians with the electorate.

"We need to re-visit the eighth amendment.

"We need to insure that no woman in this state having celebrated the fact that she is pregnant, subsequently informed that her child in the womb cannot survive, that there's no prospect of life, that she is not faced with the enormous cruel position where she must bring that pregnancy to full term with no realistic possibility the baby will survive."

The former Justice Minister also spoke about whether he would run again in the General Election and his views on same-sex referendum.

Originally published at 10.50am