The tensions over efforts to work towards a single-tier health system under the cross-party Sláintecare plan were visible on a number of fronts this week.The row over the Rotunda Hospital allowing its public-only consultants to take on private work came to a head on Monday.In the end the maternity hospital’s board acquiesced to the demand of Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill that these consultants take on no private work.The threat of withdrawal of funding was something the board could not countenance because of the potential consequences for women and babies, it said.A statement added: “The board continues to believe in the importance of choice for women and that a compromise solution for maternity care should be sought through dialogue with the Department of Health and the HSE [Health Service Executive].”On Wednesday’s Opinion pages Kathy Sheridan wrote about her own family’s experiences in Ireland’s traditionally hybrid public/private health system and concluded by urging Carroll MacNeill to “stay with it”.Today, our reporter Ellen Coyne has a different but not unrelated story on the front page detailing how two consultants are taking separate judicial reviews against the seeking the right to offer private care in new publicly funded surgical hubs.The HSE is in the middle of a large project to open six new surgical hubs across the country.The new publicly funded facilities are part of a policy to try to move more elective and scheduled care out of acute hospitals, to improve waiting lists and waiting times.Both consultants taking the cases are understood to be on older contracts that still allow public and private care; neither is on a new public-only contract.Consultants on older contracts are given provision to carry out private practice in public hospitals. It is understood the judicial review is being taken by the consultants who feel that the prohibition of private practice in the new surgical hubs is a breach of their legitimate expectations.Separately, Marie O’Halloran reported on Thursday about a claim made in the Dáil that hospital consultants were prioritising private patients over those on public lists.People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy made the allegation as he revealed details of a leaked report on Children’s Health Ireland (CHI).Murphy said the EY report, commissioned by Carroll MacNeill showed children “who need urology surgery are waiting up to a year longer if they don’t have private health insurance”.Murphy called for the report to be published immediately and said “just as private healthcare has no place in the Rotunda, it should have no place in Children’s Health Ireland”.Replying for the Government, Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke said he had not seen the report and did not know “what version you have that’s leaked”.He stressed the Minister for Health commissioned the report to investigate practices in CHI “and to ensure that there was equity of treatment of patients”.Political focus on controversial Ireland-Israel football match as World Cup kicks off elsewhereThe world’s biggest sporting tournament may have begun in the USA, Mexico and Canada – as Ken Early writes, we have “World Cup lift-off” – but the political focus here has been on the Republic of Ireland’s Nations League games against Israel. Opposition parties have demanded the Government step in to seek to stop the controversial matches due to the war in Gaza and Israel’s illegal settlements on Palestinian land.The Coalition has argued it has no role in setting sports fixtures.Marie O’Halloran reported on a contention by Minister of State for Sport Charlie McConalogue that boycotting the Israel match would mean Ireland not taking part in the 2028 Olympics.He told Sinn Féin spokeswoman for sport Joanna Byrne it was the “logical workout” of what her party and the Social Democrats were proposing in their Private Members’ debates earlier this week.The Sinn Féin motion called on the Government to support a boycott of the Ireland-Israel game while the Social Democrats called for Israel’s exclusion from all international sporting fixtures.The latest development, as Gavin Cooney reports, is that the Football Association of Ireland has confirmed that Ireland’s “home” clash with Israel on October 4th will be played at a neutral venue and behind closed doors. The latest on Aughinish AluminaAs the controversy over links between alumina produced in at the Aughinish Alumina refinery in Co Limerick and the supply chain for Russian weapons used in the war in Ukraine continues, our Europe Correspondent Jack Power reports on another angle today.He outlines how the company complained to the European Commission about difficulties the Co Limerick alumina refinery faced shifting away from fossil fuels last year, due to a “lack of access to public funds”, notes of private discussions show.An Irish Times investigation in March, carried out in co-operation with the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, detailed the downstream role Aughinish Alumina plays in the supply chain of the Russian military effort.The Government has been under pressure, both domestically and in Brussels, to respond to charges the Co Limerick plant is helping supply Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.The European Commission did not include Aughinish or exports of alumina in a new round of sanctions it has proposed to levy on Moscow. There was a fairly robust back-and-forth on the issue in the Dáil on Thursday.Social Democrats TD Cian O’Callaghan accused the Government of a “head-in-the-sand approach” to alumina exports to Russia, with Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke saying his department is investigating the matter, including seeking evidence from Ukraine.Speaking during a visit to Dublin on Tuesday, Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top representative on foreign affairs, said it was “important that we get the facts straight” about the midwest industrial plant.“Alumina is not currently covered by the EU sanctions. Europe must close all loopholes, tighten sanctions enforcement and ensure our commitments are backed by our deeds,” the senior EU politician said.Kallas also said she trusted in the continuing inquiry launched into Aughinish Alumina, which is being led by the Department of Enterprise.Anything else?It emerged that the Government will offer a State apology to the victims of Bill Kenneally after the publication of a report by the commission of investigation into the response to the serial child abuser’s case.The “abhorrent crimes” of Kenneally and significant issues of public concern have been raised in a landmark report on the convicted paedophile.Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan published the final report on Tuesday and said he would “consider its findings”.The head of the commission of investigation into complaints against the serial Waterford sex abuser found there was a serious dereliction of duty by senior Garda officers when they learned Kenneally sexually abused a boy in the late 1980s.Barry Roche and Ellen Coyne report here.Meanwhile, US president ‌Donald Trump said on Thursday that the Strait of Hormuz would be opened as soon as ‌a “great settlement” of the war in Iran was signed, an event he said he expected ​to happen within days.File that in the believe-it-when-you-see-it category.