Older people are facing a scarcity of qualified nurses to care for them unless the Government changes its policy on undergraduate education, a leading nursing organisation has warned.

Gary Keegan created the blueprint for the emergence of Ireland as a world force in amateur boxing, so it is no surprise that when his time with IABA came to an end, he would be earmarked to apply his expertise and energy to the country’s entire sporting environment.

The Health Minister, Dr James Reilly, is dismissing reports that the Director of the National Office for Suicide Prevention quit his post due to a lack of resources.

The Government was today urged to boost job creation in 2011 by restoring cost competitiveness to the business sector following the release of figures showing more than 60,000 redundancies last year.

MORTGAGE interest payments, air fares and petrol prices all soared in the last year as prices nudged up 0.5%.

THE alarming level of suicide has been described as “a national disaster”, with figures showing the number who took their lives last year to be the highest in a decade.

THE Catholic Church has refused to comment on reports that a priest is to be tried by a secret clerical court over allegations of child sex abuse in the diocese of Cloyne.

The European Commission has signed a contract with a consortium of Irish PR agencies aimed at improving the provision of public information on the European Union in this country, it was announced today.

ALCOHOL sales slumped 7% in the first eight months of this year and a staggering 14% last month alone — a greater decline than experienced over the past six years combined.

Fine Gael is demanding immediate action to tackle the huge cost of home heating oil in Ireland.

MEN who increase their intake of a vitamin traditionally recommended for pregnant women can cut their chance of having abnormal sperm, researchers said yesterday.

OVER half of all first-time buyers are now buying on their own, according to a recent national survey by the Real Estate Alliance.

An independent chairman has been appointed to investigate how a convicted sex offender kept his job as a childcare lecturer.

The Children's Minister has asked the HSE to investigate the case of a department head at the Athlone Institute of Technology who resigned last week.

IN his annual report published yesterday, Paul Appleby, the Director of the Office of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE), emphasised the need to improve the overall standard of corporate conduct.

Irish lightweight John Joe Joyce bowed out of the Feliks Stamm Senior Multi Nations in Poland at the semi final stage this morning after he lost out by a margin of five points to ex Polish Olympian Krzysztof Szot in Warsaw.

The Irish Amateur Boxing Association will be bringing home one gold medal from the Zlatko Hrbic Senior Multi-Nations tournament in Croatia after middleweight Darren Sutherland finished on top of the podium in Zagreb tonight.

TRADE ministers headed to Geneva for crucial WTO negotiations this week with lowered expectations of finalising a first blueprint for a crucial December meeting in Hong Kong.

A GOVERNMENT pledge to provide public forums for local representatives to raise concerns about the health service has not been fulfilled a year after it was made.

The Minister for Children has launched a new set of guidelines designed to encourage state and voluntary bodies to include children in policy making and project planning.

Conservation groups have launched court challenges to plans to build the controversial M3 motorway near the Hill of Tara.

AN offer by Ben Dunne and several businessmen to buy portakabins and equipment for overcrowded A&Es has been turned down by the Health Service Executive (HSE) on health and safety grounds.

THE contrast between Iraq’s Kurdish provinces and the insurgency-racked cities to the south is evident in the 100 or so labourers gathered at the main square of this Kurdish town, looking for work.

The Director of the Small Firms Association (SFA) Pat Delaney, has said that the SFA is "fundamentally opposed" to any increase in the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and that any increase under the current review would be indefensible.

GARDA superintendents should be seconded to the private commercial sector as part of their training to help combat crime which costs Irish companies €1 billion a year, a business leader demanded yesterday.

The Director of the Small Firms Association, Pat Delaney has warned that the redundancy and live register figures released today are masking a continual erosion of jobs in the exposed sectors of the economy.

The Director of the Equality Tribunal, Melanie Pine, has reported a continuing decrease in claims against pubs.

The Small Firms Association has blasted the Government’s 2% stamp duty on commercial insurance premiums calling for it to be "capped or scrapped".

IRISH shoppers are spending €18 million every hour of every day in the run-up to Christmas as cash registers look set to ring in another record year.

A further six British couples want permission to create a ‘‘designer baby’’ following a ruling by Britain’s fertility watchdog.

The Minister for Justice, John O'Donoghue, is to meet with the Director of the Irish Prison Service to discuss the rising number of convicts escaping from custody.

The Director of the Small Firms Association Pat Delaney has warned that Irish business could face an economic meltdown if foot and mouth disease were to be confirmed in the Republic.