Gardaí have this evening arrested a woman (33) in Mullingar in connection with a series of false telephone calls which sparked a search for an abandoned baby in thousands of flats in north Dublin.
The woman, who is understood to be the mother of five children, was arrested shortly after 6.30 p.m. and is being detained at Mullingar Garda Station on suspicion of wasting garda time.
Gardaí said the arrest was part of "the ongoinginvestigation in relation to a number of calls made to the gardaí in thelast number of days".
Earlier today, it was confirmed that gardaí had traced at least one phone number used to contact them to report that a new-born baby boy had been abandoned in an unoccupied flat in Ballymun.
The search, which cost tens of thousands of euros, was called off last night.
The alert was sparked by a call, believed to be from a girl aged between 13 and 16 years old, to a helpline on Monday morning.
Gardaí immediately began a search of up to 2,600 flats in the Ballymun area, which involved 40 officers, as well as dozens of Dublin City Council officials, the Garda helicopter and plain clothes detectives.
However, the address the girl left did not exist, sparking further concerns for the baby's welfare.
Gardaí eventually called off the search last night, having found nothing and deeming a number of phone calls on Tuesday by a woman to have been not genuine.