The Health Service Executive’s €14bn budget is unlikely to make any serious headway in alleviating difficulties in the health service, Fianna Fáil’s health spokesman Billy Kelleher claimed yesterday.

What doesn’t make sense, as we know from our own crash, ultimately implodes, writes Gerard Howlin.

The pressure to meet mounting public sector pay demands stepped up a gear yesterday as junior doctors confirmed they will ballot for strike action.

Update 6.46pm: The Government has expressed its willingness to talk to hospital doctors in an effort to avoid industrial action.

Non-consultant hospital doctors could be set for strike action should they fail to reach an agreement with the Government over the 'living-out allowance'.

Some 16,000 children missed their school dental screening last year, because of staff shortages and public clinic closures.

The HSE’s recruitment suspension at a time when hospitals are already suffering a manpower crisis will make it impossible to deliver safe care, unions have warned.

Seven out of 10 doctors believe private health insurance companies are increasingly dictating the delivery of medical care while not always promoting evidence-based care.

The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) is to sue the HSE in a dispute over the non-payment of a living-out allowance to approximately 3,000 junior hospital doctors.

Junior hospital doctors’ training hours do not need to be counted as working hours, the European Court of Justice has ruled, in an unexpected result.

Ireland’s health system is in crisis and requires immediate surgery, according to a new group undertaking a nationwide campaign demanding that patients have more of a say in the system.

Who knows what’s going through Mike Perez’s head this week?

Bryant ‘Peewee’ Cruz’s life changed when a local policeman took him off the Port Chester streets and hand delivered him to a boxing gym called Champs in New Rochelle, just north of New York City.

John Joe Nevin believes more of Ireland’s world-class amateur boxers will inevitably follow him into the paid boxing ranks, but not because of anything he may achieve in a career which was mapped out in considerable detail in Dublin yesterday.

Katie Taylor’s camp are examining a clause which they believe may allow the Olympic gold medallist fight up to 15 times as a professional before reverting to the amateur ranks, from where she would be able to defend her title in Rio in 2016.

IT WAS a low point for Matthew “Mack the Knife” Macklin.

IT’S time to bury the memory of the 2011 villains. The Sepp Blatters and the Joe Paternos who use and abuse sport to massage their own medieval egos.

HE lights dim and the audience is hushed. Former middleweight contender Bobby Cassidy is led to the front of the stage.

JOHN DUDDY’S former manager Craig Hamilton last night described the Derry boxer who retired on Tuesday night as “a true ambassador for the sport he loves and a world class person”.

PROMOTER Brian Peters spoke yesterday of his efforts to get Andy Lee and John Duddy into the ring and revealed that, despite a lucrative offer, both camps had rejected the deal because neither wanted to be tied into a bout with European champion, Matthew Macklin.

ANDY LEE and John Duddy could touch gloves sooner rather than later if the Derryman rises to the challenge thrown out by the Limerick southpaw yesterday.

MIDDLEWEIGHT John Duddy’s hopes of a world title shot suffered a huge blow when he was unanimously outpointed by Julio Cesar Chavez Jr in the early hours of Sunday morning.

John Duddy will head straight back to the gym on Monday morning after scoring a first-round knockout that earned him a fight on the Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey undercard on March 13.

CIÁRAN HEALY sent out a clear message to Gary “Spike” O’Sullivan ahead of tonight’s Irish middleweight title fight at the Neptune Stadium, warning the Corkman he did not travel from Belfast just for the trip.

THE middleweight champion of France, Affif Belghecham, breezed into Limerick yesterday confident of playing his part in a French sporting double against the Irish tomorrow night.

ANDY LEE takes the biggest step of his career when he meets the French and European Union middleweight champion, Affif Belghecham, in what could turn out to be an eliminator for a European title fight at the UL Sports Arena in Limerick on November 14.

THE Milner household in Ballinacarriga is quiet. Situated idyllically, there is a clichéd yet reassuring serenity in the Girlough townland. But Michael Milner is doing his best to disrupt all that.

NEW YORKERS take sportvery seriously and have some ofthe best known teams in the world operating out of legendary venues.

BERNARD DUNNE wants to win the world title, not just for himself but for all of Ireland, and he insisted yesterday he is in the best shape of his life and ready to strip Ricardo Cordoba of his WBA Super Bantamweight crown on Saturday night.

OLYMPIC middleweight bronze medalist Darren Sutherland produced another eye-catching victory in his second professional fight last night.

Derry's John Duddy returns to Madison Square Garden for the first time tonight since seeing a world-title shot against Kelly Pavlik go up in flames after a terrible performance against Walid Smichet a year ago.

Boxing promoter Bob Arum has handed John Duddy a lifeline to a world title shot after putting the Irish contender on the Miguel Cotto-Michael Jennings undercard later this month.

Unbeaten Irish boxer John Duddy will face 'Punching Policeman' Sam Hill on November 21 in New York as he makes his transition into a light middleweight contender.

JOHN DUDDY flies into Miami this morning to begin a training camp for a fight he hopes will tee up a long-awaited world title shot.

Undefeated Irishman John Duddy is poised for a world title challenge to IBF light-middleweight champion Verno Phillips.

JAMIE MOORE’S fight with Ciaran Healy for the Irish light middleweight title at the National Basketball Arena on Saturday night took on a new dimension yesterday when he found himself in line for a possible world title shot against John Duddy next spring.

UNDEFEATED Irish middleweight prospect John Duddy will hope to claw his way back into world title contention when he returns to action against Charles Howe in Boston on June 28.

PAUL McCLOSKEY finally gets the perfect opportunity to advance his career into the realm of world class boxing when he meets former WBC world lightweight champion, Cesar Bazan, at the Letterkenny Leisure Complex tonight.

ANDY LEE is determined to ignore talk of a major promotional deal with Top Rank and concentrate on making an impression in the ring as he makes his US national television debut tonight.

BATTLING cousins Patrick Hyland and Paul Griffin will touch gloves in anger for the first time when they battle it out for the vacant Irish featherweight title at the National Stadium on April 19 on a bill that will feature all three Hyland brothers with Edward set to contest the Irish super featherweight belt with Kevin O’Hara from Belfast.

JAMES MOORE will get his biggest chance yet to show there is a third US-based Irish boxer with world-title credentials when he tops the bill at Madison Square Garden on March 15.