§ 14. Mr. KEATINGasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that certain local pension officers in Ireland are disqualifying old age pensioners who are in receipt of poor relief in workhouse infirmaries; if he is aware that the increase in the prices of the ordinary necessaries of life has reduced the purchasing value of old age pensions by approximately one-half and in consequence some of the pensioners are driven to seek relief in workhouse infirmaries, for which they have willingly paid their full pension and are willing to continue to do so; if he is aware that this sum is quite inadequate to pay in full the cost of such relief, especially when estabment charges have to be included in their cost; if he is aware that the boards of guardians consider it unfair to disqualify these old people from receiving their pensions by a stringent application of regulations framed at a time when normal conditions prevailed and evidently in the belief that the amount of the pension was 511 sufficient for the pensioners' support; and will he take steps to postpone a rigid administration of the Old Age Pension Act, 1908, with regard to the matters above referred to until after the conclusion of the War?
Mr. McKINNON WOODI would refer the hon. Member to the reply which I gave to the hon. Member for South Wexford on the 24th July last.
§ Conway and Colwyn Bay Joint Water Supply Board Bill [Lords],
§ Reported, with Amendments; Report to lie upon the Table.
§ Clayton Aniline Company (Railways) Bill [Lords],
§ Reported, with Amendments; Report to lie upon the Table, and to be printed.