Tánaiste Simon Coveney has confirmed that the Government is taking legal advice as to how sanctions may be used against striking nurses, including docking their pay. Mr Coveney said the Government does not want to be at odds with nurses but called on unions to live up to their part of the national pay agreement. “They are great people, doing very difficult work, often in very pressurised circumstances. We want to be working with nurses, with the INMO and with the psychiatric nurses to build a better health service that can attract many young people into this profession,” he said. “What the Government has said is that we are taking legal advice in regard to the options that are available to us, consistent with the pay agreement that everybody signed up to with their eyes open," he told the Dáil. There is a responsibility on the Government to deliver on that, and that involves hundreds of millions of euro of extra pay across the public sector. There is also a

Violent clashes between the police and yellow vests since the start of the movement have caused many injuries including the loss of eyes and hands and led to claims of police violence. Here are the latest statistics. Less than three months since it kicked off, the Yellow Vests movement has turned into one of the longest and most violent social protests in modern France. Hundreds of protestors and police alike have been injured since the start of the protests with claims of police violence over the controversial use of rubber-bullets and stun grenades by French security forces have been gaining ground. Here's a look at the numbers. 1,700 people According to government figures, 1,700 people have been injured and 1,000 policemen or gendarmes have been hurt in the 11 weeks of conflict. Out of those injured, 100 have been seriously hurt and 11 people have now died. Most of those casualties resulted from road accidents at blockades in the early days of the protest. The