A stroke unit due to open in Cork last month after two years of delays will remain closed until at least September.

A man described as the local "fixer" for a human trafficking organisation which exploited vulnerable children is to be deported from this country.

NEARLY 9,200 heroin addicts are currently in receipt of methadone, according to the HSE.

THE first phase of a national newborn hearing screening programme will commence in Cork after Easter, with the full roll-out expected to be completed by the end of next year.

HOW the state care system failed vulnerable children has been exposed in a series of documents which show how teenagers were raped having absconded from care and suffered serious injury in care facilities.

THE state is paying private residential childcare companies in the region of €14,000 a week to look after individual children, while beds remain empty in homes run by the Health Service Executive (HSE).

MORE than 1,800 people have been diagnosed with swine flu in the past week alone, with four being treated in intensive care units over serious concerns for their safety.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) today stated that seven Closure Orders were served on food businesses during the months of July and August bringing the total number of Closure Orders served this year to 18.

Gardaí in Cork have released a man who was arrested following a fire at the headquarters of the southern branch of the HSE at the weekend.

CLOSE to 250 children and adults will be screened for TB in the coming days after it emerged two pre-schools had employed a worker infected with the disease.

CANCER patients in Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow have access to more than four times the number of cancer specialists as people in the rest of the country.