A Cabinet minister has been accused of being over-confident in predicting the referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment will be won by a comfortable margin.

Advocacy groups have criticised a new multibillion euro Government plan to help people with disabilities by labelling it a “missed opportunity” that is “short on vision” and fails to address chronic poverty among those affected.

A group which supports people with disabilities warns that it is “not inconceivable” that cases similar to that of Grace are still happening because of a lack of legislation to protect vulnerable adults.

The Junior Minister behind a new Commission into an abusive foster home in Waterford thinks Michael Noonan has no case to answer.

Paddy Connolly highlights how Ireland has not ratified the UN convention on rights of people with disabilities, and fails to plan how it will provide for vulnerable people in the future

Significant risks to the health, safety and wellbeing of residents at disability centres have been found by the Health watchdog following inspections earlier this year.

Centres for people with intellectual disabilities need to be opened up to checks on resident care by independent advocates, a support organisation has said.

Nurses are to protest against “severe and damaging cuts” to intellectual disability services outside the Dáil next Tuesday.

Critical care standards at the Áras Attracta disability centre in Mayo were not being met a month after footage emerged showing residents being fore-fed, kicked and slapped, an inspection by the Health Information and Quality Authority found.

The standard of Hiqa inspections into centres for people with disabilities has been questioned, with a new report claiming that failures to fully inspect some facilities could result in "concealment of abusive care practices".

The head of a body representing people with intellectual disabilities and their families has said the HSE must ensure quality of life is provided for residents in care homes.

Last night’s shocking ‘Prime Time’ report on care homes ha s to prompt action on some long-needed reforms, writes Paddy Connolly

More speech and language therapists are needed to provide children with the services they need and to stop a ‘brain drain’ of graduates.

The disability sector said they fear people with disabilities and their families will still be penalised by water charges, despite the concessions announced yesterday, while advocacy groups for older people gave the preliminary water charges scheme a cautious welcome.

The first set of inspection reports in relation to services for people with disabilities reveal the health watchdog was notified of allegations of abuse at one Dublin-based centre late last year.

Ireland’s three largest disability groups have joined forces to urge Health Minister James Reilly to protect funding for the specialist sector.

A new inspection regime for residential services for people with disabilities will conduct a “softly-softly approach” for the first two years of its operation, it has emerged.

The residential homes of thousands of children and adults with disabilities can be inspected by the health watchdog for the first time from Friday.

The National Council for Special Education has been criticised for excluding disability organisations from a group planning changes to how special needs teachers are allocated to schools.

In the glory days of the 70s and 80s Owenahincha was a buzzing holiday hotspot. Tommy Barker visits a very different place today, yet there may be signs of a brighter future for this faded beauty

THE Taoiseach’s apology to the women who had survived the hardship and abuse of the Magdalene laundries represented significant social progress, for which he deserves congratulations.

It was a rollercoaster budget for children, with some highs and many crashing lows, according to the Children’s Rights Alliance.

Pressure is already mounting on Government to reverse its 20% cut to “lifeline” respite support for carers, after the move was slammed as a “back-door attack on disability” which flies in the face of promises to protect the service.

Ireland’s most vulnerable children, including those with disabilities, will be protected if voters back the upcoming children’s rights referendum, campaign groups have claimed.

The country’s most infamous prisoner, Malcolm MacArthur, is a free man after serving 30 years for the violent murder of a nurse in Phoenix Park.

Hundreds of teens with an intellectual disability at risk of being cut off from State support have yet to receive confirmation of the fate that awaits them.

LOCAL jockey Gavin Sheehan led from pillar to post on the local owned and trained That Fellow in the Irish Examiner sponsored Ballabuidhe Derby before a huge crowd on the opening day of the sun-soaked Ballabuidhe Festival in Dunmanway yesterday.

A record crowd in sun drenched Dunmanway yesterday saw outsider Torpedo, driven by Donal Murphy, land the final of the West Cork Bottling Grand Prix on the second day of the Ballabuidhe Festival.

YOUR issue of February 13 last contained a report on the sale of a letter “penned

Celtic 3 St Johnstone 0

MALCOLM Macarthur is back in the news with the report that the Parole Board has recommended that he be moved to an open prison pending his release, as the board feels that he is no danger to society.

A MEMBER of the Government’s AIDS Strategy Committee has called for condoms to be provided free to ethnic minority groups and homosexuals.

The increase in the incidence of HIV and AIDS among all sectors of society must give cause for serious alarm and indicate that the Government should review with urgency its current programme on health policy in relation to preventative measures.