§ MR. O'SULLIVANasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Whether Constable Joseph Webster, together with thirty- 750 one other constables and sub-constables, were discharged from the Royal Irish Constabulary, on the 31st of July 1873, on account of ill health and long service; and, if it was a fact that those men were thereby deprived of eight pound some odd shillings each back-pay, to which they would be justly entitled if allowed to remain in the service one day longer?
§ SIR MICHAEL HICKS-BEACHThe present Government are in no way responsible for what has been done. The facts of the case are, I believe, as follows:—Constable Webster and 31 other men were pronounced unfit for further service by a Medical Board on the 9th of July, 1873. According to the usual practice in such cases, their pay was made to cease on the 31st of the same month, and their pensions to commence on the 1st of the following month. In accordance with the terms of the Act 36 & 37 Viet., c. 74, s. 1 (last paragraph), the men in question, together with many others almost similarly circumstanced—having ceased to be members of the Force before the 1st of August, 1873—wore excluded from the benefits of the increased rate of pay which commenced on the 1st of December, 1872.