§ MR. P. MEEHAN (Queen's County, Leix)To ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is aware if instructions have been issued to pension officers in Ireland to disallow claims for old-age pensions in cases where the applicant has been in a union hospital 653 for any period since 1st January, 1908; whether he is aware that, under existing conditions in Ireland, the poor, in cases of illness, must of necessity obtain medical relief in the union dispensary or hospital; and whether, seeing that if this instruction is enforced it will penalise a large number of industrious persons who are entitled to an old-age pension who may be compelled to enter a union hospital, he proposes to take any action in the matter.
(Answered by Mr. Lloyd-George.) Pension officers have no power to disallow claims, but they are of course bound to report against any claim in the case of which disqualification appears to arise. Whether relief of the kind referred to in the Question would disqualify depends upon the facts of the particular case, which the pension officer must report to the committee and upon which the committee will decide, subject to appeal to the Local Government Board.