The Mother and Baby Homes Commission has refused to confirm whether or not it contacted the Adoption Authority (AAI) about a section in its second interim report dealing with illegal birth registrations.

There has been “no decision” to carry out excavations on the site of any other mother and baby home other than Tuam — despite the HSE confirming as far back as 2012 that there had been a higher infant death rate in Bessborough in Cork .

A Government-sponsored report into social welfare insurance for the self-employed is expected to recommend a hike in PRSI payments in return for welfare protection for long-term injuries or sickness.

Even though a great number of people have had to accept a reduced standard of living, some a greatly reduced standard, the presentation by Ita Mangan, chairman of the Advisory Group on Tax and Social Welfare, to an Oireachtas committee must provoke some soul searching for anyone who imagines they have a social conscience.

The head of a Government-appointed advisory group on tax said millions of euro in potential savings from reforms of child benefit payments should be spent on childcare and service supports.

A reformed child benefit regime which targets middle and higher-income families is the lesser of two evils, the architect of the scheme has said.

The prospect of adopting a two-tiered child benefit system will today be discussed by the Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection.

Few people will dispute the urgent need for radical reform of the inequities of a child benefit system that gives the children of the poorest families in Ireland the same level of support as the children of millionaires.

Child benefit savings recommended by an expert group report have already been largely achieved by the Government, Social Protection Minister Joan Burton has insisted.

Proposed new child benefits capping payments for the better off would worsen the lives of struggling families, a leading anti-poverty group has warned.

Four out of 10 families may see their child benefit cut under new proposals being considered by the Minister for Social Protection.

Sinn Féin is criticising the Government following the leaking of recommendations from an expert group which advise that child benefit should be taxed.

Anti-poverty campaigners have voiced concern about any reduction in child benefit in December’s budget.

The Government has been forced into an embarrassing Budget U-turn over plans to slash disability benefits for young people.

The High Court has adjourned to December issues relating to publication of the remainder of the report of the investigation into the handling by Catholic Church and State authorities of child sex abuse allegations against clerics in the Dublin Archdiocese.

CLERICAL abuse victims have sharply criticised the Dublin Archdiocese Commission of Investigation for its refusal to investigate a second priest who they say abused them as children.

ABUSE victim support groups have reacted with dismay at revelations that files on 56 priests suspected of child sex abuse and handed to the Dublin Commission of Investigation will be destroyed.

THE long-awaited inquiry into clerical child sex abuse in the Dublin diocese will shock us all, the Archbishop of Dublin admitted yesterday.

ANOTHER senior Catholic Church figure has asked Bishop John Magee to consider his position in light of the latest report into his failure to properly deal with sex abuse allegations.

THE Irish Human Rights Commission has warned that some of the worst human rights abuses in Irish society are found in the treatment of older people in long-term residential care.

Union bosses today warned the elderly were suffering most from the crisis in the health service.

Some of the most vulnerable groups in Irish society are being denied free health care because of the Government's failure to extend eligibility for medical cards, according to a report published today.