The Government has won a Dáil vote to stop an opposition bill which would have led to a referendum on the 8th Amendment.

TDs voted 96 to 47 in favour of the so-called "reasoned amendment" which stopped a vote on the bill itself.

Fianna Fail offered its 43 TDs a free vote, but only 5 of its TDs wanted the bill to proceed.

The five TDs were Niall Collins, Lisa Chambers, Timmy Dooley, Billy Kelleher, Fiona O'Loughlin. The party's whip Michael Moynihan abstained.

The government agreed to stop the bill from proceeding to a vote after a deal between Fine Gael and the Independent Alliance at Tuesday's Cabinet meeting.

In exchange for supporting Fine Gael in blocking the bill, the Independent Alliance won assurances that there would be no delay in setting up a special Oireachtas committee to consider any findings from the Citizens Assembly, which is currently considering the question of the 8th Amendment.

The Assembly is due to report on abortion before the end of June 2017. The committee, which will already have been set up by that time, will then have until the end of 2017 to pass on its final recommendations.

It means a referendum, if recommended, is not likely to take place until at least 2018.