James Reilly, the former children’s minister, is tipped to be among the Taoiseach’s nominees to the Seanad.

The Public Health (Alcohol) Bill is a crucial response to one of our most significant public health problems. Alcohol misuse claims three lives every day in Ireland and we all know someone who has been affected in a harmful way by alcohol use — it is all too common.

Smoking in cars where children are present will be outlawed from January 1 with offenders facing fixed fines of €100 and tougher penalties if caught breaking the new law by gardaí.

No excuse for slapping a child will be accepted by the courts henceforth. The law has been changed to clarify a grey area that persisted for 155 years around physical punishment by parents and minders.

A controversial Diageo-funded alcohol awareness campaign has been criticised for not recommending a ban on alcohol sponsorship of sport.

Two senators have criticised the HSE’s decision to use JobBridge to hire a clinical psychologist to work within its mental health services in Waterford.

A new cross-party Oireachtas group is seeking more effective ways to tackle childhood obesity and food poverty.

An alliance of doctors, HSE experts, youth leaders,and campaigners are backing an Oireachtas Health Committee report on the forthcoming Alcohol Bill.

Boys of all ages who clearly identify themselves as being of a different gender than their actual sex should be allowed to enrol in girls’ schools, and vice versa, under changes to a new law being sought by children’s rights’ groups.

The exclusion of children from the Gender Recognition Bill 2014 has been described by Independent Senator Jillian van Turnhout as fundamentally wrong.

Adoption rights campaigners have said “serious questions” need to be answered as to why concerns raised by the HSE about Bessborough Mother and Baby Home in 2012 were not acted upon at the time.

The Government is fully aware of abusive and unregulated so-called treatments for autism, but is doing nothing to stop them, writes Fiona O’Leary.

A controversial senator, who quit Fianna Fáil over his opposition to adoption by same-sex couples, has claimed some gay people believe marriage equality funding would be better spent on HIV tests for the community.

More than 3,000 children who called Childline last year had serious mental health needs and more than 500 were described as being “in crisis”, it has emerged.

Drinks giant Diageo has pulled its representative from the board of the controversial alcohol aware ness campaign, which it also funds.

Speculation is mounting that a third high-profile organisation has resigned from the board of the controversial Diageo-funded alcohol awareness campaign.

Health Minister Leo Varadkar should "unequivocally" say whether he supports a drinks industry-funded alcohol awareness campaign after claims the initiative is a "smokescreen" to take the political focus away from wider legal reforms.

Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald has insisted her department and agencies are taking “robust measures” to protect children using the internet.

Experts are concerned at the emergence of an online retail market selling sexualised images, either extorted from children or taken from photographs and videos, voluntarily uploaded by minors onto social network sites.

In January 2014, a man was arrested as part of a major investigation into online child sexual exploitation. The individual had more than 80 social networking profiles, email addresses, and video chat accounts to sexually abuse children via webcams on compute

Around 3,000 children known to be in serious danger of neglect, physical abuse or sexual abuse have no dedicated social worker, it has emerged.

Diageo, the country’s largest drinks company and owner of Guinness, is to pour millions into a public awareness campaign aimed at preventing excessive drinking.

Health Minister Leo Varadkar has suggested a newly-formed independent HSE group tasked with further detailing medical card reforms will make more discretionary support available to the people who need it most.

The Coalition has been accused of cancelling promises to parents and children with special needs after it said a second free pre-school year will not be introduced until at least 2020.

Senators have been warned that a rejection of the Coalition’s legislation for the new water charge regime this week will leave homeowners facing bigger bills in January.

Despite Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s pledge to safeguard children as a "national priority", the only 24-hour helpline for children in crisis faces closure in January due to a lack of funding.

The Department of Health has said it has "no information" on where, or in what institution, a previously undisclosed fifth vaccine trial on children here in the 1960s took place.

Adopted people will have an automatic legal right to their birth certs for the first time if a bill is accepted by the Government.

Senators Averial Power, Jillian Van Turnhout and Fidelma Healy Eames have published legislation they say would guarantee all adopted people a right to their original birth cert.

It will be compulsory to register the name of the father on all birth certificates here under new legislation to be enacted before the end of the year.

Health Minister Leo Varadkar has been urged to address the Seanad over what action officials are taking to prevent a "toxic chemical" form of bleach claiming to "cure" a host of serious conditions from being given to vulnerable Irish children.

A controversial US group selling a "miracle" cure for serious conditions, despite the fact the product is industrial-strength bleach, is planning to return to Ireland this autumn.

Far too many sexual crimes are committed in our society with impunity, the head of the country’s biggest rape crisis agency has said.

Health charities have reacted angrily to attempts by German business groups and MEPs to derail Ireland’s planned ban on branded tobacco products.

The boss of a contentious US child pageant company has abandoned plans to stage contests in Dublin and Cork next month — and will now host just one event in Belfast.

More than 3,000 high-priority children known to be in immediate danger of serious neglect or abuse have no dedicated social worker.

Politicians, many of whom admitted to being heavily lobbied by prospective adoptive parents, have locked horns with children’s rights groups and the Adoption Authority over the sharp drop in children available for intercountry adoption.

The Government is to approve plans to make it illegal for anyone younger than 18 to get married.

Health Minister James Reilly has agreed to fasttrack legislation to ban people smoking in cars carrying children after the Seanad passed the statute some two years after the initiative began.