The Minister for Health Leo Varadkar will announce plans to publicly fund fertility treatment today.

Mr Varadkar is set to make treatment available under the public health system as part of new legislation which will be published later in the year.

Treatment costs around €4,000 and around one in six couples have trouble conceiving.

Medical Director of the SIMS clinic, Dr David Walsh, says the new system here is likely to be similar to the treatment offered in the UK.

Dr Walsh said: "Now the question is what will the budget size be? How many cycles will they apply? I presume it will probably settle down to something like the British model.

"Maybe up to one in three cycles which would be substantial, that would be about perhaps 1,500 IVF cycles a year funded by the State."