Tánaiste Simon Coveney has said the Government cannot direct Oireachtas committees to stop investigating the cervical cancer scandal, despite the concerns of an independent expert examining the crisis that the dual questioning is distracting witnesses.

Health Minister Simon Harris has asked the HSE to conduct an “evidence-gathering” exercise with state-funded organisations providing health and social care to establish a factual position on pay reductions and pay restoration.

How the story unfolded

The ‘exiting’ of top civil servants must stop, writes Political Reporter Juno McEnroe

Newstalk has reported that experimental drug trials were conducted on at least 290 children across 10 mother-and-baby homes in the 1960s and 70s.

The HSE’s latest performance report has admitted an additional €130m of “cost and cash measures” will be needed over the next three months if it is to break even by year’s end.

A long-lasting dispute between hospital consultants and the HSE could be over by Sunday night.

The HSE has been ordered to merge hospitals into new administrative groups with a single budget and a staff ceiling as part of plans to cut costs, high-level administration, and patient waiting times.

HEALTH chiefs are unable to recoup nearly €200 million to pump back into public services because consultants are failing to sign off on their paperwork with insurers.

A BLAME game has erupted between the Health Service Executive and the Departments of Finance and Health as to who was responsible for letting the spending and governance of the controversial SKILL training fund spiral out of control.

There is no evidence of a link between the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine and autism according to a new independent virus study published in the UK today.

A fresh round of talks is due to take place today in a final bid to reach agreement on contentious new contracts for hospital consultants.

CONTRACTS for Health Minister Mary Harney’s contentious private hospital plan could be signed in April, just a matter of weeks before the general election.

THE Government is set to step up measures to move Ireland closer to becoming a tobacco-free society, it emerged yesterday.

ENTERPRISE Minister Micheál Martin will come under intense pressure when he returns from Australia to explain what was discussed when he privately met with the secretary general of the Department of Health last December.

EDUCATION Minister Mary Hanafin yesterday defended the appointment of former Department of Health secretary general Michael Kelly as chairman of the Higher Education Authority, despite an OECD recommendation that the job should be advertised.

GENERAL Practitioners were paid an average of €3,400 for treating patients that were either dead or had moved away.

TURF wars among dental specialists are still ongoing a year after the Department of Health was ordered to sort out the problem.