Concerns that up to 1,000 children may have been “trafficked” to the US from the Tuam mother and baby home in “a scandal that dwarfs other, more recent issues with the Church and State” were raised by the HSE in 2012.

The scourge of knife crime among young men “urgently needs to be tackled”, according to research into assault cases at one of the country’s busiest emergency departments.

THE number of children admitted to hospital because of asthma has fallen.