Four senior staff at a west of Ireland HSE-funded charity received a total of €67,000 in overtime and untaken holiday leave over a three-year period, despite not being entitled to such payments.

Nellie Browne may not only be one of the west of Ireland’s oldest apple growers, but she may also be one of the wisest participants in Galway 2020, the city’s European capital of culture.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin pointed to the fact that 864 children are awaiting an assessment in Cork.

Evidence given by the HSE to the Public Accounts Committee as to when it knew about allegations of abuse involving the Grace foster home has been sharply contradicted by the Brothers of Charity.

A TRIO of terraced 1890s-built villa buildings, facing the UCC campus and main entry gates on Cork city’s Western Road is up for sale in one lot for €2.35 million, pitched for student accommodation, residential, offices or academic/medical-related uses, with possible further development to rear.

“Keep your child up as late as possible and fill him full of sugar,” was the unorthodox advice that Joanne Duffy received when struggling to secure a special needs assistant (SNA) for her son Ronan, who has Down Syndrome.

A former bookkeeper for the Brothers of Charity in Cork confessed yesterday to stealing more than €16,000 from the charity over a three-year period.

A man in his 40s who claimed he suffered sexual and physical abuse while attending a Galway religious school in the 1970s has had his action for damages struck out by a High Court judge.

After the decades of appalling abuse Grace is alleged to have suffered in a foster home, comes yet another shocking thought: Was someone trying to cover it up? Political Editor Daniel McConnell shows how the HSE has already tried to stonewall and hoodwink an Oireachtas committee on some matters relevant to the case, and cautions that the new commission of inquiry offers no guarantee that justice will be served

A Cork-based epilepsy outreach service has taken one of the top honours at the annual HSE Health Excellence Awards.

A man who used to make his living selling whipped ice-cream to children from his van is facing a jail term after getting caught red-handed with more than €26,000 worth of heroin in a coffee jar.

Health body accepts ‘failings’ after leaving mute woman with family that sexually and physically abused her, but little will change until reports into the matter are published, writes political reporter Fiachra Ó Cionnaith

Students of a special needs school in Cork are set to benefit from a “life-changing” new running track, according to school principal Siobhan Allen.

More than 20 staff at HSE homes for people with severe intellectual disabilities have been suspended or sacked since January 2014 over physical, financial and sexual abuse claims unrelated to the Áras Attracta scandal.

A senior counsel-led State inquiry into allegations up to 40 severely disabled children and young adults were physically and sexually abused by a foster family for at least two decades is set to be launched by the Department of Health.

There have been cross-party calls for an investigation into the HSE’s handling of claims that up to 40 intellectually disabled children were sexually abused by a foster care family over two decades.

A charity which provides services to people with an intellectual disability has tightened its internal procedures after a staff member admitted misappropriating over €12,000 in HSE funds.

A garda investigation has been launched into an alleged fraud at a charity which provides services to people with an intellectual disability.

Drastic cuts in therapy services for “the most vulnerable children” are causing stress and anxiety to parents.

The Brothers of Charity, which provides services around the country for people with intellectual disabilities, has been ordered to review the salaries of 14 senior staff members whose pay scales range from €67,000 to €106,000.

A raft of legal challenges are anticipated after hospitals and healthcare providers were given three months to stop allowance and top-up payments being made to more than 140 senior managers.

Some of the country’s leading charities claim donations have fallen by as much as 40% because of public fears about where the money might end up as a result of the top-up scandal at Central Remedial Clinic.

The Wheel, a resource organisation for charities and voluntary groups, described Section 38 agencies to me as “arms of the State in all but governance”. But shouldn’t all arms of the State be headed by the State? Isn’t governance all important?

Lucky for Pat and Margaret Carey that ESB workers decided not to strike. They would have been hard pushed to power up the thousands of Christmas lights that adorn their house in Youghal, Co Cork.

The Brothers of Charity in Waterford has revealed details of three sexual assault allegations made by adults with special needs against two of its former employees.

DR STUART NEILSON dislikes tying his shoelaces, walking through crowded streets, and refuses to take off his jumper on sweltering sun holidays because he hates the feeling of air on his bare skin.

A Brothers of Charity service has said it appointed and trained a Freedom of Information officer, but a legal loophole means it is unable to respond to requests.

Parents of children with autism plan to organise a series of fundraising events to help offset a 10% budget deficit imposed on the Brothers of Charity group in Cork.

Roy Keane’s neighbour and namesake has one thing over the famous footballer.

Hundreds of children with intellectual disabilities have been told that vital respite care services are no longer available due to deepening HSE cutbacks.

The public is giving nine times more than the State to a leading charity for seriously ill children — a development the group says reveals Government’s shoddy attitude to the service.

With only weeks to go before the next school term starts, the mother of a severely autistic teenager is still waiting to find out if her daughter will be deprived of the education and support services she needs.

Almost 100 teenagers with severe autism in Munster have been refused school places due to cutbacks in funding, cutting off their access to crucial educational and psychiatric support.

Information Commissioner Emily O’Reilly has called on the Government to speed up election promises made to voters to introduce major reforms and extensions to freedom of information legislation.

I am a 4th year Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) student in University College Cork.

Gleann Alainn, located on the grounds of a psychiatric hospital in Glanmire just outside Cork city, was deemed to be “in a state of crisis” by HIQA inspectors who found “extremely high-risk behaviour” and a team of people who were not confident or proficient with child protection concerns.

“It was like paying a visit to a relation, the President was that welcoming.”

THE Brothers of Charity in Limerick could be facing a bill of over €2 million to fund back-pay and increments owed to 150 staff.

WITH an asset base worth €2.6 billion, 17 religious orders have been asked by the state to find up to €350 million in cash or property as an additional contribution to the redress deal.

THE Department of Health has drawn up a “risk register” of potential issues that could see legal action being taken over the state’s failure to inspect residential services for 9,000 adults and children with disabilities.

CONCERNS have been raised over the handling of an investigation into the alleged abuse of an intellectually disabled resident at a HSE-run facility.