Finance Minister Michael Noonan has branded suggestions he should resign due to his role in the Grace foster abuse case as “ridiculous”, insisting he has “nothing to do” with the scandal.

On Tuesday night, two whistleblowers at the heart of the Grace scandal arrived at the front gates of Leinster House for the Dáil debate on the scandal.

The HSE has denied reports that it failed to correspond with Gardaí for three years, following a report into the handling of the 'Grace' case.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan’s handling of the Grace case while he was health minister featured prominently at a meeting of Fine Gael ministers before Cabinet this week, the Irish Examiner has learned.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan’s handling of the Grace case in the 1990s while he was health minister is to be investigated by the long-awaited commission of investigation into the foster abuse scandal.

The HSE has again contacted senior gardaí for clarity on whether it can publish two reports into allegations of serious sexual and physical abuse at a partially State-funded foster home.

The author of the State-sanctioned report into the Grace foster abuse scandal, senior counsel Conor Dignam has called for the now imminent commission of inquiry into the case to include a series of specific issues.

Gardaí are investigating Michael Noonan’s handing of the ‘Grace’ case when he was Minister for Health after receiving a complaint.

Senior child protection staff in the ‘Grace’ foster home sex abuse scandal have yet to be risk assessed or moved from their positions because legal red tape is preventing the HSE from “inappropriately” identifying them.

Decades of sexual abuse of a woman with severe intellectual disabilities who lived in foster care is alleged to have been covered up. An independent review is set to conclude in the coming days, paving the way for a State investigation.

After the decades of appalling abuse Grace is alleged to have suffered in a foster home, comes yet another shocking thought: Was someone trying to cover it up? Political Editor Daniel McConnell shows how the HSE has already tried to stonewall and hoodwink an Oireachtas committee on some matters relevant to the case, and cautions that the new commission of inquiry offers no guarantee that justice will be served

Two sisters of a woman placed in a foster care home at the centre of serious abuse allegations have urged affected families to contact them to pool information on the case.

Minister accused of trying to evade foster home abuse families

Austin Currie, a former junior health minister, insists he acted appropriately in the handling of sex-abuse allegations in the 1990s.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan “did not want” to know about sex abuse allegations involving children while he was health minister in the 1990s, a former Fine Gael colleague has claimed.

Social Care Minister Kathleen Lynch has admitted she doesn't know if any HSE official has been disciplined for the horrific foster care abuse case in the south east, two decades after it happened.

Allegations that people with severe intellectual disabilities suffered rape and extreme physical abuse in a state-backed foster care home over two decades are set to be referred to the Garda Commissioner and Taoiseach Enda Kenny amid disputed claims HSE officials tried to “cover it up”.

Serious allegations that vulnerable people with intellectual disabilities suffered decades of severe sexual abuse at the hands of a foster care family will be forwarded to the garda commissioner over claims the issue is being covered up.

Health body accepts ‘failings’ after leaving mute woman with family that sexually and physically abused her, but little will change until reports into the matter are published, writes political reporter Fiachra Ó Cionnaith

The whistleblower who has repeatedly pushed for the full details surrounding serious abuse allegations at a south-east foster-care home has welcomed the HSE’s apology for its “failings” but warned that the system has still not explained who is responsible for what happened.

There have been cross-party calls for an investigation into the HSE’s handling of claims that up to 40 intellectually disabled children were sexually abused by a foster care family over two decades.

Politicians have expressed disappointment and a sense of helplessness at a decision by the National Ambulance Service to cut the number of ambulances based at a Co Tipperary town.

Cork will get a new county manager following confirmation from the head of Ireland’s largest local authority that he will not be seeking an extension to his contract when it ends this year.

A teenage boy has secured €464,000 in settlement of his High Court action over shoulder injuries allegedly sustained as a result of negligent management of his birth.

An Irish Hospice Foundation (IHF) review of staff and bed numbers in specialist palliative care in Ireland, released today, has revealed continued and major shortages of hundreds of vital staff and beds.

A LONG-AWAITED healthcare project with its roots in 1996 was finalised yesterday by Health Minister Mary Harney when she officially opened the amalgamated hospital services in Clonmel.

IMAGES of abused children used as lecture material in Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) will be investigated as part of an inquiry into the controversy surrounding the disgraced lecturer, Dr Niall McElwee.

LIVING quarters provided by the Defence Forces for serving members are under-used and sometimes abused, the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) report has found.

THE need for an out-of-hours child protection service was highlighted in the south east 10 years ago in a child care report.

THE union representing nurses has secured safe staffing levels for Clonmel hospital after an industrial battle going back to the mid-1990s.

THE successor to Maurice Moloney, manager of the largest local authority in Ireland, Cork, will be known next week, and it’s down to a two-horse race.

An African man who raped a teenage Zambian girl he claimed he had married in a traditional wedding after paying a dowry of a goat, a length of fabric, a frying pan and US $500 (€375) will be sentenced in February.

FIANNA FÁIL’S electoral vulnerability on the health service won’t have been improved by this week’s scathing comments from one of its own elected councillors.

THE Health Service Executive (HSE) awarded a company a €56 million contract this year, despite one of the country's biggest hospitals expressing repeated dissatisfaction with the same firm.

AN appropriate pay deal is in place for the top Health Service Executive (HSE) positions, Tánaiste and Health Minister Mary Harney insisted yesterday.

AROUND one-in-five schoolchildren in a Tipperary town have serious mental health problems, a study has found.

THE Green Party yesterday called for proper vetting systems and a register for people unsafe to work with children be established as a matter of urgency.