CORK City and county vintners yesterday decided to support their colleagues in Kerry in not enforcing the proposed smoking ban in pubs, on the basis they could not implement it.

Figures have revealed Ireland has the lowest rate of breastfeeding in the world, Minister for Health Micheál Martin has said today.

INCREASED ventilation has little effect on reducing the effect on smoking in bars and restaurants, according to an EU study.

Minister for Health Micheál Martin says he will lobby the Department of Finance to add 50 cent to the price of 20 cigarettes in the next Budget.

Members of the Irish Nurses Organisation at Monaghan General Hospital have urged the Minister for Health Micheál Martin to implement fully the Bonner report on maternity services at the hospital.

NEGOTIATIONS between hospital consultants and the Minister for Health Micheál Martin on the abolition of lawsuit cover will continue later today.

THE total ban on smoking in pubs will definitely not go ahead on January 1 next, the country’s leading publicans’ representative confidently predicted last night.

Union leaders have met with the Minister for Health Micheal Martin to discuss the crisis in the health sector.

The Minister for Health Michéal Martin has unveiled a package of measures to deal with the SARS crisis.

The Labour party says the Minister for Health Micheal Martin is putting people at risk by failing to come up with a strategy to deal with a SARS outbreak here.

IRISH Family Planning Association chief executive Catherine Heaney has called for measures to regulate agencies counselling women in crisis pregnancies.

A Cork woman who contracted Hepatitis C in 1991 has left Ireland for an operation abroad.

Action must be taken to ensure there is no repeat of a situation in which a baby girl died after her mother was refused treatment at a hospital, Minister for Health Micheál Martin said today.

The Parents for Justice group are lobbying the Minister for Health Micheal Martin to set up a full statutory inquiry into the retention of children's organs.

THE union representing bar workers has warned that pub owners face a raft of legal cases from its members unless smoking is banned in pubs.

THE Board of Irish Fertiliser Industries and shareholders are to discuss the possible closure of the Co Cork plant

The Minister for Health Micheal Martin says he will not intervene in the Junior Doctors dispute.

Fine Gael's Jim Mitchell is attacking the Minister for Health Micheál Martin for failing to address when he says is a chronic situation for people waiting for orthodontic dental treatment.