The Master of the National Maternity Hospital has criticised the fact that medical decisions regarding abortion are still made in a 'criminal context' in Ireland.

Dr Rhona Mahony wants doctors to be able to decide on terminations in a 'clinical context' free of legal considerations.

She also believes women need to have an input into the clinical decision-making process.

Under the current law doctors are asked to make sure there is a 'substantial' risk to the life of the mother before a termination is granted.

Dr Mahony says our abortion legislation is still too complicated:

She also highlighted the difficulties facing a potential referendum on the 8th amendment, saying "in this case it's kind of ambiguous and open to different interpretation - but it's having a tremendous impact on law... I can only envisage if there was such difficulty in '83 over wording, I can't see finding that perfect wording any easier."

Speaking to Shane Coleman on the Sunday Show today, Dr Mahony also discussed a number of other topics, including the new National Maternity Hospital at St Vincent's Hospital.

She says the current hospital building "is not fit for purpose", and the hope is that "the first babies will be coming through [the new hospital] in 2020".

You can listen back to the full interview via the podcast below: