Carers in Northern Ireland face a future of debt, worry and health problems, a leading carers’ organisation has warned. Carers Northern Ireland was responding to a UK-wide survey of 3,000 carers.

Sex offenders’ membership of the Orange Order will be automatically terminated under a new policy. “The last time we updated our internal discipline procedures there was no such thing as the Sex Offenders’ Register,” said Grand Secretary Drew Nelson.

A woman and her child who face being deported from Northern Ireland back to Cameroon have arrived back in Belfast.

The grounds of the Northern Ireland Children’s Hospice are to be transformed into a wildlife area with the help of a Big Lottery Fund windfall.

The Ombudsman has criticised a former health board for mishandling efforts to get three siblings into foster care.

The Government has vowed to slash the length of time children must wait for help with speech difficulties – promising no-one will wait longer than 13 weeks for assessment by 2009.

The country’s biggest children’s hospital, Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, has claimed that 159 job cuts are being sought by the Health Service Executive. The hospital says the job cuts would have a devastating effect on services and result in unacceptable safety risks.

A two-day conference on independent living opens in Dublin today with campaigners claiming the Government has failed to live up to a United Nations treaty on the rights of the disabled.

Religious organisations in Northern Ireland “need to know where they stand with the law” following the introduction of new ‘gay rights’ legislation, Belfast’s High Court was told yesterday.

President Mary McAleese today insisted Ireland must reject the arrogance of those who restrict the lives of disabled people.