Health Minister Leo Varadkar has told Laois GPs the report on Portlaoise Hospital by the State’s health services watchdog must be fully implemented.

Staff embroiled in the Portlaoise Hospital baby deaths scandal are facing serious charges by their professional regulatory bodies while the HSE is considering taking disciplinary action “against some individuals in management positions”.

On the morning of January 24, 2012 Mark and Roisin Molloy’s son Mark passed away just moments after he was delivered at the Midland’s Regional Hospital.

The Director General of the HSE says downgrading Portlaoise Hospital might have caused even more difficulties than maintaining it as a level 3 facility.

The Director General of the HSE has said that more staff at Portlaoise Hospital could face disciplinary hearings.

Bereaved parents who met with the Health Minister last night say they want to see further changes at Portlaoise Hospital.

The HSE is being asked to come up with an action plan to improve conditions at the Midlands Regional Hospital in Portlaoise.

The head of the HSE has pushed the blame for the deaths of newborn babies at Portlaoise Hospital back onto Government, claiming decisions to keep unviable services at the facility was “a matter of policy” which the HSE is “obliged to follow”.

HSE chief Tony O’Brien has refused to be drawn on whether people would be held to account following the publication of the report on child deaths in the Midland Regional Hospital in Portlaoise.

Publication of HIQA report into the deaths of five babies at Portlaoise Hospital should happen immediately, and is a "perfect opportunity for disclosure", a father of one of the babies has said.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has said that Ireland is one of the safest places in the world to give birth.