Jacqueline O"Toole of Pearse Street and Geraldine Nolan of Townsend Street sued their abuser Joseph Carrick of Carysfort Woods in Blackrock who decided not to defend the actions.

Both were abused from the ages of 12 and 13.

A jury heard today that Jacqueline O"Toole had a child by Mr. Carrick which she put up for adoption.

She has been given €4 million compensation which is the largest award of its kind.

Geraldine Nolan who was awarded €700,000 described their abuser as a beast.

The Health Minister says the HSE inquiry into the death of Savita Halappanavar will proceed without her husband"s co-operation.

James Reilly says it is regrettable that her widower Praveen has decided not to engage with the investigation at this stage.

The Minister also says he has requested an interim report into the circumstances of the death of the 31-year-old before Christmas.

"I am quite happy that we can investigate this situation currently, and we"ve commenced that" he said.

"There may come a point where obviously we won"t have the completeness of information without Mr. Halappanavar"s input - and to me that"d be regrettable".

"But I want to get the investigation to that point at least before we have any further public discourse on this" he added.

The Department of Health is to receive a financial bailout. 

That is despite the Taoiseach being adamant for months that there would be no supplementary budget for Minister James Reilly. 

The Department has overspent by at least €400 million this year and cutbacks have failed to correct that. 

The Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin has confirmed to the Dáil that extra money for health would have to be approved.

"I can confirm it is likely that there will be a supplementary budget for Health" he said.

"I"m actually having a bilateral meeting with the Minister for Health after this session" he added.

Public service unions have agreed to enter talks with management to discuss the government plan to raise a further  €1 billion from the Croke Park Agreement.

Unions say they will sit down with public service managers next Wednesday to discuss further cost-cutting measures.

The talks would see an extension of the Croke Park Agreement covering issues such as extra working hours for the same pay, increments and premium pay.

Spokesman for the Public Services Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions is Bernard Harbor.

He says union leaders accept that the government is in a difficult position.

"What"s clear - or what the government is saying is now clear - is that there"s a bigger hole to fill than we expected when we went into this process" he said.

"So I think unions accept that that problem exists, we hear what the Minister says when he says he"ll be looking for savings in the pay bill to help get over that problem".

"And obviously the general attitude is it"s much better to be negotiating about how that will happen, rather than having payroll changes imposed upon our members" he added.

In Britain parents of a 1-week-old boy say they are absolutely devastated after he died when he was bitten by the family dog.

Police are treating Harry Harper"s death as a tragic accident.

The family"s Jack Russell has been put down.