More than €92,000 of credit card expenditure by a State-funded youth service — largely on hotels, restaurants, and entertainment — a €14,000 payment to a consultant for a week on call, and close to €20,000 to a recruitment agency for a doctor already working in the hospital are among a litany of poor financial practices highlighted in HSE audits.

An on-call consultant paid more than €14,000 for one week’s work at Cork University Hospital, and a €25,000 monthly payment for radiology services at Bantry General Hospital where the contract was awarded with no tender process, are among the shortcomings highlighted in a series of HSE internal audit reports.

A HSE-funded programme for high-risk children claims to be up to four times more cost effective than private foster care and up to 10 times cheaper than private residential care.

Some 82% of children with difficult or challenging behaviour who received support from a youth advocacy programme last year demonstrated an improvement in behaviour, the group's report for 2011 says today.

At least six people were killed when a twin-engine commuter plane crashed into Manila Bay in the Philippines shortly after take-off.