NI's Tuesday morning headlines: Cost of living payments and Causeway Hospital

Michelle Napier has your Tuesday morning headlines for Northern Ireland

COST OF LIVING PAYMENTS

Eligible families claiming tax credits will start to receive cost of living payments from today.

The three hundred and one pound payment will be automatically paid into most customers' bank accounts. It’s the first of three payments totalling nine hundred pounds over the coming year.

CAUSEWAY HOSPITAL

A public meeting in opposition to a Northern Trust decision to move all births from the Causeway Hospital in Coleraine will take place later. Falling birth rates, workforce challenges and the absence of neonatal special care facilities have been blamed for the decision.

SECURITY ALERT

A man has been charged with a number of offences including criminal damage after a car crashed into the wall of an east Belfast police station. The incident sparked a security alert and a number of homes near Castlereagh station had to be evacuated yesterday morning. Army bomb experts examined the vehicle but nothing untoward was found.

WINDSOR FRAMEWORK

The deadline to submit evidence to a House of Lords committee on the Windsor Framework is due at four o'clock. The Lords Protocol Committee will examine the economic, political and legal implications of the Framework, and take evidence from business, political and civic representatives.

ASTHMA

Today is World Asthma Day and a charity is calling on the Department of Health to develop a Lung Health Strategy. The Asthma and Lung UK charity is warning that lives could be put at risk without an early diagnosis.

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