Parents and carers of autistic children are to protest in Dublin and Cork today over ongoing issues with a welfare payment they say is being unfairly cut off.

NURSES hit back at the Health Minster Mary Harney yesterday after she accused them of holding the Government to ransom in a staffing row which has seen a €5 million emergency department lie idle for more than a year.

Parents of children whose organs were retained by Irish hospitals have been forced to wait until the report into the scandal is publicly released today before having a chance to read it.