§ MR. O'KELLY (Roscommon, N)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been called to the Circular issued on the 12th January by the Local Government Board informing boards of guardians of the qualifications it was proposed to prescribe as necessary in the case of any person claiming to be a trained nurse for the purposes of section 58, sub-section (2); whether there is any possibility of having the qualifications which it is proposed to prescribe so modified as to include nurses who, although not trained in the technical sense of the term, yet possessed at the time of their appointment to workhouse hospitals sufficient qualifications to warrant the Local Government Board in ratifying their appointment; and whether he has considered that if the Local Government Board now refuse to allow out of the Local Taxation Account recoupment in respect of the salaries of such nurses, a great hardship will accrue in the case of those unions where only such nurses are employed?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURI am afraid I can only refer the honourable Member to my answers to the Questions addressed to me on this matter on the 10th, 14th, and 20th of the present month. I have already stated that where the existing infirmary nurse of a workhouse has received training, though not sufficient to comply with the regulations of the Local Government Board, the guardians are authorised to allow her, if approved by the medical officer, leave of absence for such a period as will enable her to complete the training necessary to place her on the Board's register of trained nurses.