PRESSURE has been put on Northern Ireland’s Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie to create more social housing in deprived areas such as west Tyrone, after it emerged that the Housing Executive is sitting on £240m of surplus land.

Fine Gael says it will be tabling a private-members’ motion in the Dáil this week demanding a massive increase in state funding for children with autism.

A new study shows that patients with dementia benefit from living in a customised environment rather than in a traditional hospital ward.

ATTACKS on health service employees look set to reach record levels after the latest statistics on assaults on staff were revealed yesterday.

The Government comfortably defeated a Fine Gael motion in the Dáil last night that was critical of the services for cystic fibrosis and mental health patients.

Paying off top officials as part of an overhaul of the health service will push the reform cost to £70million, an Assembly member has claimed.

More health service cutbacks are likely this year following the news that the HSE is receiving less money from the Government than it needs to sustain existing services.

Attacks on emergency service crews continue to soar with police clearing more than 2,000 cases within just 12 months, it has emerged.

Tens of thousands of nurses may cripple the health service through mass resignations unless they are given a pay rise, it emerged today.

An 83-year-old woman deemed medically fit for discharge back in July of this year has been stuck in a leading Dublin hospital ever since because the Health Service Executive won’t pay for a nursing home for her.