A public representative who was born in a mother and baby home won unanimous support from her colleagues to call on the government to buy the home rather than see it fall into the hands of private developers.

Snubbed county councillors in Cork yesterday vented their fury against Irish Water after the utility declined to send representatives to County Hall to discuss a serious water supply issue in East Cork.

A woman has spoken publicly for the first time of how she was born in a mother and baby home and then visited the same place 17 years later after discovering she was pregnant.