The failure to build the national children’s hospital would be a scar on the Government’s legacy, Health Minister Simon Harris told an Oireachtas committee.

Just one of the proposed 180 amendments to the proposed abortion legislation was accepted after a marathon debate.

Abortion legislation is now unlikely to enter the Dáil before the summer because of ongoing court challenges to the referendum result.

Tánaiste Simon Coveney has said the Government cannot direct Oireachtas committees to stop investigating the cervical cancer scandal, despite the concerns of an independent expert examining the crisis that the dual questioning is distracting witnesses.

Cervical cancer victim Vicky Phelan and the widower of Irene Teap, who lost her life due to the same scandal, will attend a special Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting today to highlight what questions they still have over the crisis.

Your morning headlines.

There is concern that people are delaying treatment until funding is available

The TD behind moves to legalise medicinal cannabis has said he will force a Dáil vote to stop his bill from being abandoned.

One of the country's biggest children's charities has claimed that is being excluded from a Health Committee meeting to discuss the location of the new National Children's Hospital.

Managers of poor performing hospitals are to be held publicly accountable before Oireachtas committees for the first time, under plans being developed by Health Minister Simon Harris.

HSE chief Tony O’Brien, who has just taken over the emergency department taskforce, says he hopes to have 440 additional acute hospital beds open over the winter to ease overcrowding.

Hearings on the possibility of legislating to allow for terminations in cases of fatal foetal abnormality are expected to be held by a cross-party committee during the summer.

The Health Minister's attempts to deal with the trolley crisis may have been dealt a blow, as a flu outbreak may increase the number of people at hospitals.

The chairman of the Health Committee says he believes history will be kind to the former Health Minister James Reilly.

The HSE’s “service plan” budget document should allow funding to be cut from hospitals if they fail to address the top-up payments scandal, health bosses have been told.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has warned potential abortion law rebels such as Lucinda Creighton that he expects them to back the Government.

In a vote at committee stage this afternoon the suicide clause of the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill was backed by eight votes to two.

We need to take "personal and collective responsibility" for our children's' weight, Oireachtas Health Committee Chair Jerry Buttimer has said.

ELDERLY patients will have their medical card applications processed in 15 days, Health Minister Mary Harney has promised following concern that a new centralised system left over-70s waiting up to four months for their entitlement to free health care.

DÁIL deputies and senators are proposing to form a new sub-committee to deal with child welfare issues.

A state inquiry into institutional and clerical child abuse in the North is almost inevitable, government sources said tonight.

FORMER Minister for Health, Micheál Martin forwarded the Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction (CAHR) report to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children four years ago but its members failed to ever publish a report on proposed legislation.

The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children is seeking an urgent meeting with the head of the HSE to discuss the future of Our Lady's Children's Hospital in Crumlin.

There will be enough swine flu vaccines for every man, woman and child, the North's health minister promised today.

A CAMPAIGN to recruit British-based GPs to work in Ireland will be launched next month.

The governments on both side of the border need to show leadership in tackling suicide and self-harm, Gerry Adams insisted today.

HUGE changes in the way the medical profession will be policed in the future were unveiled yesterday by the Tánaiste and Minister for Health Mary Harney.

Top Irish experts will today discuss the bird flu epidemic, which has already spread to several EU countries.

Farmers today accused a Dáil committee of double standards after it refused to tackle complaints about toxic red mud ponds in Limerick.

The nursing home charges blame game has obscured the important issues, writes Political Reporter Michael O’Farrell.

Fine Gael and Labour today accused the Oireachtas Health Committee of ignoring crucial issues in its findings on the illegal nursing homes charges debacle.

GOVERNMENT members of the Oireachtas Health Committee will today be accused of closing ranks to protect former Health Minister Micheal Martin from being criticised in a committee report into the illegal nursing home charges scandal.

Enterprise and Employment Minister Micheál Martin talks to Political Editor Harry McGee about the trials and triumphs of eight years in office.

A former top civil servant in the Health Department today hit back at how he was treated in the illegal nursing homes charges affair.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was told about illegal nursing home charges almost a year before they were eventually uncovered, an Oireachtas Health Committee heard today.

A three-year-old died from heart failure brought on through obesity in Britain, it emerged today.

IRELAND must apply all its health resources together to deal with the SARS threat during the Special Olympics, Ireland’s chief medical officer has said.

The head of the North's police anti-child abuse unit tonight called for tougher measures to prevent paedophiles preying on children.

Police today arrested four protesters after a field of genetically modified crops was ripped up and trampled on by around 70 activists.

Hundreds of extra millions have been ploughed into Northern Ireland’s health service but patients have yet to see the benefit, it was claimed tonight.

People who attended a party in nationalist west Belfast and took drugs were tonight being urged to seek urgent medical attention following the deaths of three young men.