§ Mr. GUINEYasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether the Local Government Board for Ireland will instruct the pension officers to accept as evidence of age the written statements of persons older than an applicant in cases where the applicant's age cannot be found either in the baptismal or marriage records, or in the Census records of 1841 or 1851, as several applicants of this class will be for ever deprived of the pension under the regulations now in force?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEI see no necessity for the issue of any further instructions to pension officers in this matter. In the case of a claimant who can produce no certificate of birth, baptism, or marriage, to establish attainment of statutory age, and who cannot be traced in the Census Records of 1841 or 1851, the existing instructions allow the pension officer to refrain from an appeal if he is himself satisfied that the claimant has in fact attained the age of seventy.