§ 11. Mr. JOYCEasked the Chief Secretary whether his attention has been called to the case of Mrs. Margaret Halpin, of Boherbuoy, Limerick, who was born in or about the year 1840, but of whose birth no record can be found, who is a claimant for an old age pension, and who, in support of her claim, is able to produce her marriage certificate which shows that she married a soldier who served in the Crimean War, and who, after her marriage, was in the service with her husband, who died in 1901 after service in the Army; and, seeing that this old widow states that she was twenty-five years of age at the time of her marriage in 1865, and that it is impossible to get any record of her birth, although her two sisters are receiving the old age pension, whether, taking all the circumstances of this case into account, steps will be taken to grant the pension in this case?
§ Mr. BIRRELLMargaret Halpin's claim for an old age pension was disallowed by the Local Government Board on appeal in October, 1911, for want of evidence of age. The fact that she was married in 1865 could not be accepted as sufficient evidence that she is seventy years of age unless she is able to prove that at the time of her marriage she was over twenty-one years of age.