Former Miss Ireland and TV star Pamela Flood and husband Ronan Ryan will not have to pay any of the €1.2m debt they owe against the plush North Dublin home they have lived in rent free for the past nine years.

A couple who discovered an error in Bank of Scotland’s sale of their €170,000 mortgage to US-owned vulture fund Tanager Limited, smiled as they left court yesterday after a judge threw out Tanager’s bid to take back their home.

The HSE has yet to decide if it will provide funding this year for a hepatitis C support group after an internal audit found “significant extravagance” and “governance deficiencies” in its use of public funds.