PARENTS of special needs children said they face further cutbacks after the Department of Education confirmed children signed up for the free preschool year will have specialist home tuition hours cut.

A TOP civil servant has been drafted in to take over the running of the Adoption Board following the sudden departure of the chief executive last month.

MOST of the HSE files regarding the deaths of children in the care system have been passed to the experts charged with reviewing their deaths, it is understood.

THE newly passed Adoption Bill has been heavily criticised for failing to include information and tracing rights for more than 42,000 adopted people and birth parents.

THE HSE and the Minister for Children yesterday defended its special care service for vulnerable children after a report claimed there were deficiencies in the system.

A quarter of parents say they slap their children, according to a new report by the Office of the Minister for Children.

The attitudes of children towards different parenting and discipline styles will be published by the Office of the Minister for Children later this morning.

SENIOR HSE figures are to be asked to meet Children’s Minister Barry Andrews to explain why the number of deaths of children in care is substantially higher than previous figures provided to the Government.

THE HSE has been given a deadline of late June to provide all details of children who have died in care in the past decade.

THE HSE was criticised yesterday for the late postponing of the publication of two reports into the deaths of two young people in care over what it called “unresolved legal issues”.

THE Rape Crisis Network has accused the Government of making announcements that they will protect people from high-risk sex offenders upon their release into the community, but of failing to enact legislation.

THE statutory body which advises on the appointment of legal advisers in childcare proceedings has claimed new legislation could saddle Guardian ad Litems with massive legal bills.

THE Government has slashed its promised investment in community creches by 90%.

FIVE years ago, Mary Cleary paid €1.5 million for a purpose-built childcare centre.

LAWS allowing gardaí, schools and health authorities exchange so-called “soft-information” about suspected paedophiles have still not been drafted because of what the Government described as “complex constitutional issues”.

THE Government needs to enact laws to bring teachers accused of behaving inappropriately towards children before a new teaching council, the Children’s Ombudsman has claimed as the children’s body saw a rise in complaints made to it.

IRELAND is one of the few countries in the EU that does not provide publicly funded educational and care services for children under the age of three.

VICTIMS’ groups have expressed shock at how an audit of child protection measures was considered acceptable despite religious dioceses skipping the only section which questioned bishops’ handling of actual abuse cases.

THE Health Service Executive last night said it had “taken into account” the National Board for Safeguarding Children report when conducting its own investigation of how the Cloyne diocese handled the abuse claims.

THE tragic death of Baby P in England will be repeated here because of the poor standards of protection for children at risk, Fine Gael has warned.

BARNARDOS has hit out at plans by the Health Service Executive (HSE) to shelve proposals for an extended out-of-hours social care service because of government funding cuts.

GARDA commissioner Fachtna Murphy issued a chilling warning about a new drugs threat facing this country known as crystal meth.

Concerns were raised today about the inequality experienced by young people who are stereotyped by adults.

Around 200 teenagers will gather in the Dáil today to debate and vote on issues related to education and mental health reform.

CRÈCHE fees are so high in this country that two parents working full-time, and earning the average industrial wage must hand over about half of their joint income to pay childcare costs for two children.

Child protection will be one of the topics discussed at a major two-day conference opening today in Kilkenny.

AN extra €1.1 billion will be provided for the Health Service Executive (HSE) next year, bringing to €12bn the total expenditure on public health services.

One in three Irish teens as young as 15 years admitted to being “really drunk” during the past month, an international survey found today.

All political parties should commit to a radical reform of the way migrants are dealt with and supported, campaigners said today.

More than a quarter of Irish youngsters have suffered bullying, it was revealed today.

A detailed picture of the lives of Ireland’s children is to be revealed today in a major report aimed at shaping Government policy.

A HIGH level meeting is to take place next week to decide how best to introduce a system to vet staff working with pre-school children.

HEALTH Minister Mary Harney admitted last night the bulk of the extra €1.1 billion pouring into the service next year would go on wages as she signalled a major rise in the cost of private beds in public hospitals.

CHILDREN and parents are to be questioned about their views on physical and other forms of punishment in a move which could lead to a legal ban on corporal punishment.

IRELAND compares very badly to other developed countries in terms of funding and regulation by the State for childcare and pre-school education, a major international report reveals.

THE Government has cracked down on more than 2,200 claimants wrongly receiving child benefit in the past six years, saving an estimated €22 million in the process.

Organisations were today urged to work together to protect young people at risk.

PARENTS of the country’s 350,000 children under six will be paid the first instalment of the annual €1,000 childcare payment this August.

A €24m study set to benefit future generations of children was today launched by Minister Brian Lenihan.

THE Government is to track the progress of 18,000 children over the next seven years to help inform future policy on services for young people.

THE Green Party is undergoing a quiet transformation. It’s ever so slowly getting realistic in its ambitions for its environmental agenda and slowly becoming more mainstream in its economic and social policy.

THE lack of adequate facilities for young people and the need to better integrate minority groups will be debated when 200 delegates meet for Dáil na nÓg today.

TWO children were found wandering on a busy street by a passerby after walking out of the front door of their crèche, according to documents obtained the Irish Examiner.

ISN’T it funny how sometimes really important things happen and nobody pays them a blind bit of attention?