The Department of Justice has this evening acknowledged a "regrettable and isolated incident" in which staff at direct provision centre close to the Limerick Clare border refused to give a mother and ill child bread and milk because the centre’s canteen was closed for the night.

There are 470 asylum seekers who have been granted refugee status in Ireland but who are unable to leave direct provision centres because there is nowhere else for them to go.

A VULNERABLE girl taken into the care of the HSE after arriving here alone from the Congo has lost a High Court action aimed at requiring the health services to continue to fund her care after she turned 18.

IMMIGRANT support groups are increasingly being prevented from entering direct provision accommodation by managers, it has been claimed.