Number of teen births continues to fall

There were 42 teenagers under the age of 16 who had babies last year, it has emerged.

The birth figures from the Central Statistics Office show that 1,187 teenagers had babies last year, but the number of such births has declined over the past 15 years.

The HSE Sexual Health and Crisis Pregnancy Programme pointed out that births to teenagers had fallen by 62% since 2001 when there were 3,087.