The body representing Ireland's obstetricians and gynaecologists has made no submission to the Working Group on Abortion. Dublin's three maternity hospitals have also not made any submission.
This means that none of the main bodies concerned with the delivery of reproductive health care to women has expressed any views on abortion to the working group.
However, the Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference did make a submission, as did the Church of Ireland. A spokesman for the Catholic Press and Information Office said it would not be making this public, but that there were no surprises in it. The Church of Ireland Primate, Dr Eames, has also indicated that it will not be making its submission public at this stage.
The honorary secretary of the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Dr Ronan Gleeson, told The Irish Times yesterday that the institute had decided at a recent meeting of its executive not to make a submission.
"It was realised we would be seen as an interested body," he said. "The way the institute works is that if something like this comes up we circulate all our members asking for their opinions, and then we have to synthesise them into one document.
"With a subject like this we have members with positions which are poles apart. We would not be able to come up with one single viewpoint.
"It was left up to individuals to make their own submissions if they wished," he said.
The three maternity hospitals did not make submissions either. Dr Peter McKenna, Master of the Rotunda, said the hospital did not send one in, but he hoped to talk to officials of the Department of Health in a personal capacity.
A spokeswoman for the National Maternity Hospital in Holles Street said it was not making a submission.
A spokeswoman for Dr Michael Turner, Master of the Coombe, said the hospital had not made a submission to the working group, and was waiting to see the Green Paper, which it would study when it was published.
The regulatory body for nurses, An Bord Altranais, did not make a submission either.
Meanwhile, the submission of the Adelaide Hospital Society, which sought a network of centres offering comprehensive care to women in crisis pregnancies, including the termination of their pregnancies when medically indicated, according to the X case judgment, has continued to attract comment.
Two independent Wicklow county councillors who are members of the Church of Ireland have issued a statement expressing their "grave misgivings" about the submission.
Mrs Susan Philips and Mr Jim Ruttle said: "Since the Adelaide Hospital Society is an existing Protestant institution, with the Archbishop of Armagh as its patron, it could perhaps be construed that the Church of Ireland is taking a very open stance on abortion. Both councillors are appalled that their church could have any involvement in a society that has, as one of its objectives, the killing of the unborn."