A childcare lecturer convicted of sexual assault charges was allowed to carry on in his post despite health chiefs, senior gardaí and the Government being made aware of the allegations against him.

AN emotional Mary Harney last night declared: “Quitting is a shortcut to failure, and I don’t accept failure.”

In a robust defence of her actions amid angry scenes in Dail Éireann tonight, Mary Harney has apologised to the nine women recently diagnosed with having cancer after having previously been told that they were clear of the disease.

WHILE the inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the resignation of childcare expert Dr Niall McElwee at Athlone Institute of Technology is to be welcomed, the probe is too narrowly focused, prompting fears that serious questions will go unanswered.

An independent chairman has been appointed to investigate how a convicted sex offender kept his job as a childcare lecturer.

The HSE has said it will conduct an investigation without delay into the extent of knowledge of allegations regarding a former department head at Athlone IT.

Fine Gael has called for an external investigation into what it is describing as the failure of the HSE to act on information about a former department head at Athlone IT.

VOLUNTARY vetting of people who work with children is totally inadequate in light of the scandal surrounding a leading childcare lecturer who was forced to resign after it emerged he was convicted of attempted indecent assault on a 15-year-old girl three years ago.

The Children's Minister has asked the HSE to investigate the case of a department head at the Athlone Institute of Technology who resigned last week.

It has emerged that the Gardaí told the Midland Health Board about allegations of sexual assault involving a department head at Athlone Institute of Technology as far back as June 2004.

A SENIOR health manager who was leading a probe into the unexpected death of a woman at a nursing home has stepped aside to avoid a potential conflict of interests.

IT increases energy levels, improves communication and motor neurone skills and relaxes the listener - if music be the food of life, play on.

STAFF at the former Southern Health Board were overpaid almost €670,000 in the past three years, it has emerged.

CLINICAL nurse managers had complained to the HSE about being forced to attend PPARS training courses when hospital staffing levels were at critical levels, it was revealed yesterday.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern yesterday insisted the controversial health service payroll system was not “a waste of time”, but admitted consultants had been “overused” on the project.

Jimmy Woulfe, Mid-West Correspondent

ONLY half of foster careers who look after a relative have been properly assessed or approved, a new audit has shown.

A CAMPAIGN group for families whose loved ones had organs retained without their knowledge is appalled that a major acute hospital kept a dead man’s brain for almost two years without informing his next-of-kin.

IBM has announced that it is expanding its managed services offering with the opening of a dedicated data centre in association with new business partner, Servecentric.

MORE women have died from breast cancer in the Republic than Northern Ireland because of the lack of national screening problem.

THE number of measles cases doubled last year, raising fears of an epidemic.

REGIONS outside greater Dublin are at the early stages of a cocaine epidemic, a health expert warned yesterday.

A CARDIAC ward at a new Dublin hospital remains closed after sewage from toilets seeped into the room for the fourth time last weekend.

The Irish Nurses Organisation has today said that an elderly care unit at Birr, Co Offaly is lying idle at a cost of €70,000 a year.

Five Enforcement Orders were served by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland last month due to breaches of food safety, it was revealed today.

WELL done on publishing the excellent column by Rónán Mullen on the Midland Health Board taking a 14-year- old girl to England for an abortion.

AT long last the Kildare bypass has been opened, thanks be to God. Isn't it great after all the delay, extra expense and uproar caused over a pink snail.

The National Breast Screening Programme is expanding to Wexford.

LIKE many pro-lifers throughout the country, I was stunned by Olivia Mitchell’s attitude to the secrecy surrounding recent reports that the Midland Health Board had taken a teen mum and her unborn baby to England for an abortion.

MYLES FENLON (Irish Examiner letters, Dec 1) calls Rónán Mullen’s excellent column of December 17 grotesque and obnoxious.

A HEALTH BOARD is understood to have sought approval from a district court that would allow a teenager who became pregnant in its care to travel to Britain for an abortion.

A FULL report on the case of a 13-year-old girl who became pregnant after being sent to Britain under the care of a health board has been requested by the Minister for Health and Children.

The Government’s breast cancer screening programme tested 38,242 women last year, according to its annual report for 2002.

A MOTHER of seven questioned by gardaí investigating claims that a newborn baby was abandoned in a north Dublin flat was in a serious condition in hospital last night following a suspected overdose.

HEALTH care facilities worth up to €150 million are lying idle around the country because of government funding shortages.

A CLAMPDOWN on referring day-care cancer patients to Dublin hospitals contributed to a €2.7m overspend by the Midland Health Board (MHB) for the first seven months of the year.

PSYCHIATRIC nurses are burnt out, suffering from low morale and need more training to keep up with changes in the system, a study has found.

THE National Treatment Purchase Fund has resulted in patients on waiting lists with conditions such as cancer being denied treatment in favour of those with non-life threatening conditions such as hernias and joint replacements, a consultant has claimed.

I NOTE your shock-horror headline ‘20 years to clear hospital backlog’ (Irish Examiner, August 6). Actually the reality is worse.

PRISONERS at a midlands prison have to travel more than 50 miles for psychiatric assessment because the local hospital will not treat them.

MORE THAN 21,000 children are waiting an average of three years for specialist dental treatment.

PLANNED admissions to a Midlands hospital were yesterday cancelled as nursing staff stepped up industrial action.

LESS than one-third of children and 36% of adults eligible for the National Treatment Purchase Fund have been treated.

A CRITICAL shortage of speech and language therapists has left thousands of people with untreated speech defects and language difficulties, in some cases for up to three years.