MR. O'BRIENasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether it is the fact that the Royal Irish Constabulary Pensioners who retired from the force between 1866 and 1874 got only about three-fourths of their pay as pension, although the Act of 1847 gave them their full pay as pension after 20 years' service, and although the majority of these men served over thirty years; whether it is the fact that the Dublin Metropolitan Police and the officers of the constabulary who joined and were discharged under the Act of 1847 were pensioned off with their full pay; what is the reason of this inequality in the treatment of officers and men who joined and served in the same force and were discharged under the same Act of Parliament; and, whether the Government will give to pensioners with 30 years' service the full pay allowance to which the Act of 1847 entitled them after a service of 20 years?
§ MR. TREVELYANThe case of these pensioners has been several times debated in this House, and has been frequently considered, and successive Governments have decided that they received the pensions to which they were entitled by law. I cannot undertake to re-open the matter, the details of which are too complicated to be satisfactorily dealt with in answer to a Question; but 55 I may mention that the hon. Member is under a misapprehension in supposing that a direct comparison between the case of these men and that of Constabulary officers serving under the Act of 1847 and of the Metropolitan Police can be instituted as he suggests. The officers had to serve for 40 years under that Act before they could retire on full pay; and, in the case of the Metropolitan Police, different statutory provisions exist to affect the construction.