§ Mr. MOONEY (on behalf of Mr. Hugh Law)asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether he is aware that the local subcommittee, on receiving satisfactory evidence of age, granted an old age pension to James Coyle, of Killult, parish of Clog-haneely, county Donegal, such pension to be paid on and after the first Friday of September, 1909, but that after a month's interval the claimant was informed by the Excise officer that the pension was disallowed; whether any notice of appeal and of the grounds of the appeal was given to the claimant; and whether, seeing that the claimant is a carpenter out of work and in ill-health, and that the clerk of petty sessions of the district has a record of the man's age, showing him to be in his 71st year, the Local Government Board will now authorise payment of the pension?
§ Mr. CHERRYJames Coyle is recorded in the Census Returns of 1841 as being one year old, and will therefore be eligible for a pension next year. He was granted a pension by the sub-committee from 10th September last, but the pension officer appealed, and apparently gave due notice of his appeal to the committee, who should have informed the claimant. The Local Government Board are not aware that the clerk of petty sessions has any record of the claimant's age. He has testified that he was himself born on 16th April, 1840, and that he has heard from his own mother and from Coyle's mother that Coyle is six months older. The Board do not consider this evidence conclusive as against the Census, and Coyle has made statements inconsistent with it. The Board have 1653 therefore upheld the pension officer's appeal, not being satisfied that Coyle has reached the statutory age.