Grave concerns have been expressed in the Dáil over the year-long delay to the commission of inquiry into the Grace foster abuse scandal.

The State commission into the Grace foster abuse scandal has been severely criticised by the families of victims for being overly “hostile and adversarial”.

Documents and information relating to the care of 'Grace' have been requested of 51 public bodies and individuals by the Commission into her savage sexual abuse in a foster home.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is to meet in private today to receive a confidential legal briefing on the ‘Grace’ foster abuse scandal.

The HSE has been heavily criticised by junior health minister Finian McGrath for its role in the Grace case, and for delaying the setting up of a commission of inquiry into the abuse scandal.

The HSE has been heavily criticised by junior health minister Finian McGrath for its role in the Grace case, and for delaying the setting up of a commission of inquiry into the abuse scandal.

A man who raped his step-daughter 64 times over a seven-year period has been sentenced to 12 years with the final two years suspended.

A Corkman who raped and sexually abused his step-daughter over a seven-year period will be sentenced later this month.

The Taoiseach may claim he saved Ireland from recession, but 10 commissions, inquiries, and tribunals tell a different tale, writes Political Correspondent Fiachra Ó Cionnaith

A final vote on the terms of reference for the 'Grace' inquiry has been deferred until tomorrow.

TDs will be asked to approve the terms tonight, so that the inquiry can get underway as soon as possible.

A 15-year jail term, with the last five years suspended, was imposed on a young woman for setting fire to an apartment building in Mallow causing the deaths of two of her friends, writes Liam Heylin.

A Cork pensioner who raped and sexually abused his step-daughter from when she was aged 11, resulting in her giving birth to two of his children, has been jailed for 12 years.

Thousands of euro that were the proceeds of crime were found hidden in homes belonging to members of the Heaphy family in Cork.

A prisoner charged with carrying out a post office raid in 1996 in Cork escaped from custody and fled to England, where he became a model citizen until his recent arrest and extradition.

A former solicitor pleaded guilty yesterday to theft, fraud and forgery charges amounting to more than €300,000.

A Co Cork man has beem jailed for two years after “a cowardly blow” which knocked a woman unconscious.

Two Blarney men, accused of throwing a lighting petrol bomb into an apartment and other charges, were put on trial yesterday.

Covert recordings of Gary O’Flynn asking for help to hire a hitman to murder a fraud squad detective, a taxman and an accountant became the key evidence in the case where he was jailed yesterday for three years.

Former solicitor, financial advisor, and Fianna Fáil councillor Gary O’Flynn pleaded guilty yesterday at Cork Circuit Criminal Court to six fraud charges.

Man, 68, abused his daughter and step-daughter for many years

ormer Fianna Fáil councillor and solicitor Gary O’Flynn is to be sentenced in April after confessing to charges of soliciting someone to murder three people — a garda fraud squad, a Revenue Commissioner, and an accountant.

A 20-year-old killer was yesterday given a 10-year jail sentence, with the final two suspended, for a Christmastime stabbing of a 51-year-old man outside a Cork pub.

The young man who denied murdering a middle-aged man at the Manhattan Bar in Cork in Christmas 2011 has pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

A young man went on trial yesterday on a charge of murdering a middle-aged man in Cork at Christmas 2011.

A young woman sexually assaulted by her stepfather wanted him named publicly yesterday so that he would not do the same thing to someone else in the future.

A Corkman went on trial yesterday on 21 charges of sexually assaulting his teenage stepdaughter.

A 59-year-old man from West Cork sexually assaulted three girls by having them sit on his lap to steer his car on country roads and yesterday he was jailed for two years, as the judge said he was guilty of a gross breach of trust.

A man pleaded guilty yesterday to raping a woman in Kanturk more than two years ago.

Two teenagers who followed two young women separately through the streets of Cork City, hitting one with a bottle and subjecting the other to a violent sexual assault, have been jailed for nine and eight years.

A man who denies raping a 13-year-old girl by forcing her to perform oral sex on him told gardaí he never had oral sex with a girlfriend or anyone because he was self-conscious about having only one testicle.

A 65-year-old man has said he was falsely imprisoned, assaulted, and handcuffed to a radiator by his estranged wife and his son in the bathroom of a B&B.

TWO friends spent the day drinking together but it ended in extreme violence when one man stabbed the other 40 times.

THE jury in the trial of a man accused of raping a 13-year-old girl and forcing her to perform oral sex on him failed to reach a verdict after three-and-a-half hours deliberation yesterday.

A MAN on trial on charges of raping a 13-year-old girl denied forcing her to perform oral sex on him. He said he would not have done so because he was self-conscious about having only one testicle.

A 13-YEAR-OLD girl who claimed she was raped by a 21-year-old man texted him afterwards not to tell anyone and she said he texted back: “Nobody needs to know. We can still meet up. Ha.”

A CORK man who raped and sexually assaulted a male friend after taking “head-shop joints” and alcohol at a flat in the city in March 2010 has ben jailed for six years, with the last two years suspended.

THE HSE spent more than €1.43 million on 24-hour security and a private room to keep just one patient suffering from potentially lethal TB in hospital for two years against their will.

A MOTHER of two young children who was forcibly detained against her will in hospital for almost three years under a controversial, rarely used law has died.