Failure to construct a maternity hospital alongside the new €1.7bn children's hospital on the St James's Hospital (SJH) campus in Dublin would “be a financial and medical catastrophe”.

Criticism of the decision to allow the wife of a member of the Oireachtas committee hearing submissions on abortion to make her own submission has been rejected by her husband.

A young woman who refused a transfusion after losing a massive amount of blood after giving birth in a Dublin maternity hospital has told the High Court she believed a transfusion was a transgression of "an order from God'' and she was "prepared to die'' for her faith.

STAFF shortages combined with an increase in births and poor infrastructure has led to “serious concerns” for the safety of mothers and babies in three of the country’s maternity hospitals.