Latest: Outgoing Fine Gael TD Dara Murphy has insisted he has “been compliant” with Leinster House rules about his attendance at all times.

Fresh faultlines in Fine Gael’s bitter battle over abortion have emerged as TDs clashed on whether hospitals have the right to boycott X-case legislation.

TWO theatres at Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH) cannot be used because there are no staff available to sterilise the instruments, the Joint committee on Health and Children heard yesterday.