A volunteer cancer patient transport service is to be introduced at two Cork hospitals within months.

IT’S not something he wants to contemplate but Brian O’Driscoll admits he would have to consider retirement if next week’s operation to free a trapped nerve in his shoulder does not allow him to return to rugby and play free from pain.

FORMER taoiseach Garret FitzGerald is seriously ill in hospital and has been put on a ventilator.

Republic of Ireland skipper Robbie Keane has revealed teenage defender Shane Duffy is already looking forward to returning to action.

Midfielder Keith Andrews has revealed the relief within the Republic of Ireland camp at teenager Shane Duffy’s recovery from a life-threatening injury.

FLASH floods destroyed roads and bridges in Mayo on Thursday night, a day after millions of euro worth of damage was caused to areas of north Dublin by a torrential downpour.

Twice as many people are afraid of going blind as of premature death or heart disease, a survey revealed today.

Health chiefs tonight sought to ease the crisis in breast cancer services by listing 20 centres they vowed would meet standards in care.

The Government today gave its full backing to the establishment of the new National Children’s Hospital beside Dublin’s Mater Hospital.

IRELAND must have a clear roadmap strategy to deal with a major bird flu outbreak in the near future, top medics warned yesterday.

Ireland must have a clear roadmap strategy to deal with a major bird flu outbreak in the near future, medics warned today.

The Health Service Executive has confirmed that the new National Children’s Hospital will be built on the site of Dublin’s Mater Hospital.

A man and woman arrested in connection with the death of a middle-aged woman who was found severely malnourished in a house in Co Wexford days before she died were tonight released without charge.

Gardaí were today continuing to question a man in his 20s over the fatal stabbing of a man at a hotel at Croke Park.

Gardaí tonight arrested a man in connection with the stabbing of a man near a hotel in Croke Park.

A LEADING heart doctor has said defibrillators should be available at all sporting venues following the sudden death of a second member of the same family during a soccer game.

The Government today faced new demands to rescue Dublin’s Mater Hospital from a €20m black hole.

AT least one person could die each month unless a shortage of organs for patients awaiting heart transplants is addressed.

A total of 325 patients were waiting on trolleys in accident and emergency departments throughout Ireland this morning, according the Irish Nurses Organisation.

A DONOR shortage has been blamed for the delay in the first lung transplant to be performed in Ireland.

THE potential exists to reduce the number of sudden adult deaths in Ireland every year by around 1,800, a cardiologist insisted yesterday.

MORE than one in six Irish people have suicidal thoughts, the highest rate in a survey of six European countries, research shows.

PATIENTS and the teaching status of Dublin’s Mater Hospital are likely to suffer because of radical cost-cutting measures, its chairman has claimed.

A LEADING heart and lung specialist has warned that lives could be lost because of hospital cutbacks.

Irish health officials are today assessing plans to deal with the arrival of thousands of Special Olympics competitors, coaches and supporters this summer in the light of the continuing worldwide alert over severe acute respiratory syndrome.

HOSPITAL cutbacks are likely to delay the availability of life-saving heart and lung transplants in Ireland.

Hospitals will have to live within their budget despite an escalating funding crisis, the country’s health minister warned today.

LIFE may well indeed begin at 40 after a new survey revealed that middle-aged men and women in Ireland still have regular sex.

UNION leaders have demanded an urgent meeting with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern after claiming that ordinary workers will bear the brunt of Government spending cutbacks.