SMEs need more encouragement to avail of the €12bn public procurement market, with only 14% of them bidding in public sector tenders in the past 12 months.

Met Eireann is forecasting up to ten centimetres of snow in some parts of the country tonight.

Emergency response teams have been alerted across the North amid fears the overnight flooding that swamped Belfast could be repeated today.

Most main routes in south and east Belfast were left impassable after heavy rain caused severe flooding, the PSNI said.

Chief executive of Northern Ireland Water (NIW) Laurence MacKenzie is set to resign over his organisation’s mishandling of the region’s water crisis.

More than 60,000 homes face a night without water in the North as engineers temporarily cut off supplies to allow depleted reservoirs to refill.

Water bosses in the North tonight faced demands to quit as engineers struggled to repair leaking pipes to tens of thousands of homes, amid fears the drinking water fiasco could develop into a major health emergency.

The North's escalating drinking water crisis is in danger of developing into a major health emergency, it was claimed today.

The North’s main political parties are at loggerheads tonight over a government scandal that has forced the suspension of a top civil servant.

The North’s water system is leaking 181 million litres a day at a cost of an estimated £5m (€4.1m) each year, a new report confirmed.

A water safety warning affecting 220,000 households across the North is likely to last throughout today, officials confirmed.

A Belfast company today snapped up a £50m (€55.9m) contract from Northern Ireland Water to repair and maintain the water and sewerage networks.

More than 300 jobs are to go by April as part of Northern Ireland Water’s efficiency drive, the company confirmed tonight.

Northern Ireland Water failed to meet its targets on drinking water quality and the number of pollution incidents last year, its first annual report revealed today.

Emergency services battling to contain flooding across the North are today braced for more downpours.

The chief executive of Northern Ireland Water is leaving her post at the end of the month, it was announced today.