A firm in a Border town which suffers a high level of unemployment claimed yesterday it was unable to get a sufficient number of women to enable it to expand.

The award-winning firm of Diamond Designs, at Castleblayney, Co Monaghan, which manufactures nurses' and doctors' uniforms as well as other types of protective garments, said it could increase production by 25 per cent if it succeeded in recruiting 10 extra women.