The HSE owes thousands of hospital patients and nursing home residents, who were wrongly charged a combined €450m for free public services, tens of millions of euro, officials have admitted.

The families of those involved in the ‘Grace’ sexual abuse case have reacted angrily to news that the HSE has failed to co-operate properly with a state investigation.

Limerick gardaí say they are close to identifying the people who were in a car from which a known criminal fell to his death when travelling on the N69.