The Government has appointed a retired paediatrician, Prof Edward Tempany, to assist inquiries into vaccine trials in children's homes in the 1960s and 1970s.

He will be a full-time member of the Laffoy Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, assisting in inquiring into "the legality, conduct, ethical propriety and effects on the subjects of vaccine trials conducted on children".

The trials were conducted in a number of children's homes in 1960-61, 1970 and 1973.