A report published eight years ago about the future of our maternity services recommended that the midlands hospital at the centre of four controversial baby deaths be brought within the governance of the Coombe — but this was not acted upon at the time.

A Midlands hospital where four newborns died in similar circumstances over a number of years has lost control of its maternity services after a damning report found it was neither safe nor sustainable.

A man is dead and a woman is in a critical condition following a serious car crash this afternoon on the M7 near Monasterevin in Co Kildare.