There are fresh calls for a new, statutory child maintenance service, after figures showed that, of all the cases reviewed by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection last year, just 15% resulted in payments being made.

New parents are set to be given a paid "family leave" support from the Government which will see them able to share State grants and time off after a birth any way they like in the first year of a child’s life, writes Irish Examiner Political Correspondent Fiachra Ó Cionnaith.