Nursing unions are meeting today to discuss a possible escalation in industrial action as part of their campaign for improved pay and working conditions. Nursing unions are meeting today to discuss a possible escalation in industrial action as part of their campaign for improved pay and working conditions.

The number of homeless people in Northern Ireland has risen by 15%, it emerged last night. The figures were revealed in a major report from the Housing Executive which was launched just one day before Sir John Semple’s final report on affordable housing in Ulster.

The first step in a massive shake-up of how Ulster’s health service is run has been taken after the province’s 18 health trusts officially merged into five this weekend.

More than 40,000 nurses throughout the country are beginning a work-to-rule this morning as part of their campaign for improved pay and conditions.

People in Northern Ireland at risk from hate crime are being offered extra protection – including personal and home alarms and 24-hour access to the police – as part of a government initiative responding to alarming rises in such incidents.

Alarm has been expressed at a 37 per increase in the suicide rate in the North over the past year. In the latest mortality statistics there were 291 registered suicides in 2006 compared with 213 in 2005.

Negotiations have continued overnight between management at the Health Service Executive and officials of the Irish Nurses Organisation, in an attempt to break the deadlock over the opening of Cork University Maternity Hospital.

Sick leave among council workers is higher in Northern Ireland than in England and the civil service, according to the Audit Office. In the past year, absenteeism among staff cost £14m in lost productivity.

Around 1,700 jobs are to be cut from Ulster’s health service as part of a massive shake-up of the way it is run – more than double the original estimate.

140 barristers have called on the Minister for Justice and Tánaiste, Michael McDowell, to delay the passage of the Criminal Justice Bill through the Dáil until after Easter at least. In a letter signed by the barristers, the Minister has been told the time is needed to allow those involved in the criminal justice system to make a constructive input into the debate.