The Government is aiming for next June as the deadline for drafting the proposed Green Paper on abortion. However, a definitive date depends on the "volume and complexity" of submissions received, the Minister for Health said.
Mr Cowen yesterday told Government colleagues he is establishing a Cabinet sub-committee to oversee the work of an interdepartmental working group on all the implications of the matter.
Mr Cowen will chair the subcommittee and the group will also comprise the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke; the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue; the Minister of State, Ms Liz O'Donnell; and the Attorney General, Mr David Byrne.
Detailed work on the preparation of the Green Paper will be undertaken by the interdepartmental working group. This body has a mandate to consider the "constitutional, legal, medical, moral, social and ethical issues which arise regarding abortion".
The working group has been asked to examine relevant legislation, including Sections of the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act, Article 40.3.3. of the Constitution and the Supreme Court decision in the X case in 1992, which permitted abortion in limited circumstances.
It will also consider last week's High Court decision in the C case.
Membership of the working group is drawn from the Departments of Health, Justice, Foreign Affairs and the Attorney General's Office. Other Departments may be called upon to offer support where necessary.
Meanwhile the anti-abortion group, Doctors For Life, yesterday said that members of the Eastern Health Board were not absolved of their personal responsibility for the outcome of this case, irrespective of "the fact that the courts have authorised such destruction".
In a statement, it called on the board to reconsider its proposed course of action in relation to assisting the young girl in its care to procure an abortion.
"The judgment of the courts does not in any way change either the consequences of abortion or its attendant medical and ethical realities. The Irish Medical Council and the Irish Medical Organisation are clear and unequivocal in their rejection of abortion as unethical and as never medically justified," a statement from the group said.
When the board, "in good faith", took this young girl into care, it was "probably unaware that it was in fact taking two children into care." Prior to this, it would have been impossible to envisage a scenario in which the board would even countenance, let alone "actually materially assist in the destruction of a child in its care," the statement added.
A "genuinely compassionate" response would ensure that the girl and her unborn child got the very best medical, social and psychological care now and in future.