If the 130,000 children who live in dire poverty were as visible as patients on hospital trollies, Ireland might wake up to this ‘silent crisis’, says the CEO of Barnardos.

Many children whose parents are heavy drinkers grow up worrying about their siblings’ health and safety, while others report being unable to sleep at night because of parents’ partying or recount being verbally and physically abused by drunk parents, according to the Irish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC).

The Government has been forced to defend proposals linking child benefit to school attendance after charities and politicians reacted angrily to the plans.

A leading children’s charity has used the popular game of snakes and ladders to show the devastating effects of the rise in child inequality.

Parents are being forced to make “heart-breaking” decisions to leave their children in care because they are unable to secure appropriate accommodation, a leading children’s charity has said.

Junior Health Minister Kathleen Lynch has said she is hopeful of a breakthrough in the protracted dispute between a Cork hospital and a cystic fibrosis charity that has stalled the development of a €2.3m ward for patients with respiratory illness.

One of the country’s leading campaigners for improved cystic fibrosis services has urged a charity that raised funds for a Cork hospital not to hand over the money until beds are ringfenced for CF patients.

Location: Portlaw, Waterford

Athletics Ireland chairman of High Performance Ray Flynn described Robert Heffernan’s victory in the 50km race walk as the “best day of my athletics life” and that the main message of the Corkman’s performance was to “the athletes themselves.”

It took the death of a friend before cystic fibrosis (CF) rights campaigner Órla Tinsley was finally able to access an appropriate hospital bed, almost a week after she first presented for treatment.

A dedicated unit to treat cystic fibrosis (CF) patients has been described as a tribute to campaigners who died before it was built.

Ireland’s U18s suffered late heartache against Wales in last night’s friendly at Ferrycarrig Park in Wexford.

The rate of child benefit will be standardised and the back to school allowance is being cut from €305 to €250 and from €200 to €150 in the Budget cuts announced by Brendan Howlin today.

COMMITTED healthcare activist and part-time journalist Orla Tinsley was last night named 2009 Irish Tatler Woman of the Year at a ceremony in Dublin’s Mansion House.

NEW houses have crowded in around Clonmel’s Glenconnor House, a period home on five acres of grounds with more than a 40% price drop — down to a quoted reserve of €850,000.

JUST as the warning to the Health Services Executive about defective cancer screening equipment at Portlaoise began to slip from the frontline of public consciousness another tragedy predicted by health professionals has come to pass.

Ireland’s leading children’s charity today branded the latest social partnership agreement a missed opportunity.

AN organisation representing the unemployed has criticised the Government for failing to stem a worrying rise in job losses in the Cork region.