§ Mr. MacNEILLasked the Chief Secretary whether ho is aware that Sir William J. Thompson, the Irish Registrar-General, in reply to a correspondent seeking information about names from Census Returns, wrote on the 30th May stating that the Census Returns of 1861 and 1871, being confidential documents, had been destroyed by Government authority, and that the latest Census Returns available for public reference were those of 1851; at what date were these Census Returns destroyed; what is the public authority at whose instance they were destroyed; what power is vested in that public authority for the destruction of documents prepared at great expense, presumably in the public interest; under what statutory provisions, if any, has this destruction taken place; why have the Census Returns of 1841 and 1851 been preserved, whereas the Census Returns of later date have been destroyed; on what grounds have the earlier Census Returns escaped destruction, though presumably confidential documents, and is their preservation due to their utilisation in the administration of the Old Age Pensions Act as evidence for the withholding old age pensions from persons whose claim to old age pensions would otherwise have been unassailable; and whether, having regard to the effect which the destruction of public documents by Government authority is calculated to produce, an explanation of the circumstances under which this 1143 destruction took place and the grounds for the adoption of such a course will be given?
§ Mr. REDMOND BARRYMy right hon. Friend is aware that the Registrar-General wrote as stated. The circumstances under which the Census Returns of 1861 and 1871 were destroyed have been fully explained in his reply to the question of the late hon. Member for South Belfast on this subject on the 29th September, 1909, to which I would refer the hon. Member. The preservation of the Returns of 1841 and 1851 is not due to their utilisation as evidence of age in connection with the Old Age Pensions Act.
§ Mr. MacNEILLWhy are you using the other forms to deprive people of old age pensions to which they are otherwise entitled?
§ Mr. REDMOND BARRYOh, no, not to deprive people of old age pensions.