A survey carried out in west Cork has found that one-fifth of special needs children in the area are awaiting psychological assessment. It also found a third of those who have been assessed had to pay for the tests privately.

A new bill proposing a number of changes to our criminal justice system is due to be published today. The legislation is expected to include the introduction of electronic tagging for suspects released on bail, and tougher sentences for serious crime.

A Progressive Democrat TD is demanding the introduction of sentencing guidelines for sexual offences. Fine Gael has already called for action on the issue. Backbench TD Mae Sexton claimed that minimum mandatory sentences must be laid down after a man was convicted of rape and received a suspended sentence yesterday.

Shocking revelations of how patients in Muckamore Abbey hospital are being put at risk are contained in a dossier obtained by the BBC. The health service paper was sought under the Freedom of Information Act.

A paraplegic Ulster law student who received compensation from a nursing and care company which refused to lift her from her wheelchair last night spoke of the humiliation and degradation she endured as a result of her treatment.

Commenting on the launch by the DHSSPS of a Managed Clinical Network for Critical Care, Dr Peter Maguire, Deputy Chairman of the BMA’s Board of Science and consultant anaesthetist at Daisyhill Hospital, Newry, said:

A County Armagh couple who abused their children over a period of 10 years have been sent to prison for a total of six and a half years. The 37-year-old man was sentenced to four and a half years, while his partner, 41, was jailed for two years.

Children as young as 10 were among six juveniles arrested during disturbances in Londonderry, police have said. Two of the youths were arrested for disorderly behaviour and the other four on suspicion of riotous assembly on Tuesday night.

What are the side effects of cancer? Weight loss, nausea, tiredness. These are all recognisable to any of us who have been affected by cancer. But poverty, homelessness, bankruptcy, these ‘side effects’ are less frequently in the headlines.

Justice Minister Michael McDowell is expected to publish his new bill to tackle gangland crime later today. The Criminal Justice Bill is understood to include provisions that would force judges to impose mandatory 10-year prison sentences on people caught with large quantities of drugs.