Northern Ireland Health Minister Michael McGimpsey has announced the appointment of Alison McCullough as the new Chairperson of the Regional Speech and Language Therapy Task Force.

Northern Ireland Health Minister, Michael McGimpsey, has said that the new Mental Health and Learning Disability Board will be the driving force in delivering the Bamford reforms.

More community-managed paedophiles and sex offenders are living in south Belfast than anywhere else in Northern Ireland, it has emerged. Almost 100 monitored sex offenders are residing in the area, according to a police report.

The Government’s Health Information and Quality Authority has published new draft quality standards for nursing and residential care homes for the elderly. The guidelines have been drawn up in response to a series of scandals surrounding how older people are cared for.

The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), has published draft national quality standards for nursing homes and other residential care centres for older people.

A Londonderry doctor has said up to 20,000 people could be living in County Donegal but fraudulently claiming free health care in Northern Ireland.

Up to 80% of children in west Belfast’s most deprived areas are living in poverty, an academic has claimed. Eilish Rooney from the University of Ulster said poor Catholics and Protestants were missing out on Northern Ireland’s peace payoff.

A suspended Belfast City Council employee was paid for more than two years despite being off work, it can be revealed. The individual, who was facing serious allegations of misconduct, stayed on full pay for 122 weeks while the council decided on a return to work.

Almost half the number of drownings last year were suicides, according to the annual report of the Irish Water Safety Association.

A new study by the Rape Crisis Network has reportedly found that Ireland has the worst record in Europe when it comes to successfully prosecuting rape and other sex crimes.