§ 7. Mr. Dunlopasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in what newspapers circulating in Northern Ireland vacancies are advertised for trainee nurses for Tyrone and Fermanagh Hospital and Tyrone County Hospital.
§ Mr. CarterNone. Personal applications are sufficient to meet the demand for trainee nurses.
§ Mr. DunlopIs the hon. Gentleman aware that strenuous efforts are now being made to obtain work permits for many applicants from the southern Irish Republic as trainee nurses in the area of the Western Health and Social Services Board? In view of the calamitous unemployment situation in that area will the hon. Gentleman request his noble Friend to instruct the authorities to give the utmost priority to local applications, especially from school leavers who may want to enter the nursing service or an ancillary medical service in the Western area?
§ Mr. CarterI think that the hon. Gentleman has probably asked the wrong question. There is no need to advertise for trainee nurses. If he had referred to trained nurses instead of trainee nurses, he would have received the reply that we advertise in the Sentinel, the Journal, the Strabane Weekly News, the Strabane Chronicle Tyrone Advertiser the Tyrone Constitution, the Ulster Herald and the Fermanagh Herald and Leitrim and Monaghan News, not forgetting, of course, the Impartial Reporter.