A Dublin toddler who could not eat or drink has taken her first taste of food after US doctors carried out a pioneering procedure to grow her a new oesophagus.

AMERICAN doctors are expected to carry out the final part of a pioneering procedure this week on an Irish baby girl who has been in an induced coma for 31 days.

IT’S been hailed as a classic waste of taxpayers’ money, but yesterday the government jet was put to a use no-one with a heart would object to.