§ Mr. LUNDONasked the Secretary to the Treasury in how many cases have the pension officers in Ireland appealed to the Local Government Board on behalf of applicants for old age pensions whose claims have been refused by the local committees and who themselves are not in a position to appeal?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEI beg to refer the hon. Member to the reply which I gave to the hon. Member for the West Division of Cavan on the 21st instant.
§ Mr. O'DOWDasked the Chief Secretary whether he can state the grounds on which John Higgins, Carickglass, county Sligo, Ballyfarnon, Boyle sub-committee, has been deprived of his pension, seeing that, according to the Census of 1841, he is shown to be seventy-one years of age?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Local Government Board upheld the pension officer's appeal in this case on the ground that Higgins, who was born outside the British Dominions, failed to prove that he was a British subject.
§ Mr. O'DOWDIs it not a fact that this man, although born in the United States of America, left there when two months 234 old with his people, and resided in Ireland since?
§ Mr. BIRRELLWhether a man is a British subject or not is, of course, a matter to be decided according to the rules of law, and I cannot express an opinion without full knowledge of the facts.
§ Mr. O'DOWDasked the Chief Secretary whether John Wynn, of Tubbercurry, county Sligo, was deprived of his pension by a decision of the Local Government Board on 14th June, 1909; whether in December last Wynn himself procured a certificate from the Census of 1851 showing hi was entered there as being of twelve years of age at that time; and, if so, whether the amount properly due, and of which he was deprived for six months, will now be paid to him?
§ Mr. BIRRELLWynn's pension was discontinued on 15th June, 1909, as the result of an appeal by the pension officer on a question as to age. The Local Government Board have been informed that Wynn has since been traced in the Census Returns of 1851, which show him to have been over seventy years old at the time of the Board's decision, and he is now in receipt of a pension. As regards the last paragraph of the question, the payment of pensions is not one over which I have any control.
§ Mr. KELLYasked the Chief Secretary whether he will give the Christian names of the parents of Mrs. Alice Kelly, of Meenahinnish, Killygordon, county Donegal, who was deprived of her pension as she did not appear amongst her parents' family in the Census of 1841; what were their ages; what were the Christian names and ages of the children of the said family; and what was the name of the townland, parish, and barony in which the family resided in 1841, as recorded in the Census of that year?
§ Mr. BIRRELLI understand that the names of Mrs. Alice Kelly's parents were John and Kate Connolly. The Local Government Board have just learnt from the pension officer that the wrong family was traced in the first instance in this case. A further search is now being made.
§ Mr. KELLYasked the reasons why Daniel Ward, of St. Johnston, county Donegal, has been deprived of his pension; and whether this man was given no reason why his pension was stopped?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Local Government Board are not aware that Daniel Ward was ever in receipt of a pension. The pension officer appealed against the committee's decision granting a pension, and the Board upheld the appeal, as Ward was unable to furnish satisfactory proof that he had attained the statutory age. Ward must have been aware of the grounds of the appeal, as the Board requested him to forward evidence as to his age.