Debts of up to €100,000 could force more newly qualified doctors to seek work abroad, research among medical students suggests.

Numerous cases of doctors working continuous 36-hour shifts and 100-hour-plus weeks is putting their lives and health, as well as the lives of their patients, at risk, the European Commission has warned.

The mother of a junior doctor who took her own life described her daughter’s working hours as “immoral” following an inquest.

Remarks by Children’s Minister Frances Fitzgerald that the Adoption Act is “restrictive” and may be re-examined to allow Irish couples to adopt more easily from a wider range of countries, have been labelled as “worrying”.

The statement by Frances Fitzgerald, the children’s minister, that she is “going to consider” possible changes to the 2010 Adoption Act to make it easier for Irish couples to adopt from a wider range of countries is more than worrying.