§ MR. WILLIAM REDMOND (Clare, E.)To ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer whether, in calculating the incomes of small farmer pension claimants in Ireland, the pension officers treated the members of claimant's family 2366 working on the farm as earning whatever they received in food, clothing, lodging, etc., up to a limit substantially higher (in the case of members of the family doing work of management and supervision) than ordinary labourers' wages, or whether the pension officer treated the children's support as part of the claimant's income; whether the support of small children of a married son living on the farm was treated as part of the father's earnings when it did not bring the latter above the limit in question, or whether the pension officer treated same as coming out of the grandfather's (claimant's) income; whether he is aware that the working of small farms in Ireland by the owner and his family really constitutes a genuine though informal partnership, so that a claimant should only be fixed with the value of the benefit actually received from the holding by himself and by members of his family, who did not earn or who received more than they earned; whether, in the event of the authorities not accepting this view, they will, before taking action, make inquiries among clergymen, magistrates, solicitors, and other persons in Ireland familiar with the habits of small farmers in question; whether he is aware that, apart from their respective legal powers when disputes arose, the position of a small farmer who retained the legal ownership of his farm was identical with that of one who had made it over to a child on marriage, retaining only a right of residence and support by covenant in the deed; and whether he is aware that in many instances the cost of preparing a deed was the only reason the owner did not assign it to a child on marriage, and that all concerned treated it as owned by the married son, subject to an obligation of supporting his parents.
(Answered by Mr. Lloyd-George.) Cases of the kind referred to have up to the present been treated upon their merits, regard being had to the particular circumstances of each case, and no general principles have been laid down. The formulation of such principles, which may involve legal considerations of some complexity, is a matter for the Local Government Board in dealing with appeals rather than for the pension 2367 officer, and pension officers will be instructed to guide themselves in the future by the decisions given in such cases by that Board.