§ Mr. MAURICE HEALYasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether, in calculating the incomes of applicants for old age pensions in Ireland, the right to maintenance commonly reserved by old people of the farming class when, on the marriage of their children, they part with their farms is taken as being value for 10s. a week; whether this rule, assuming it to exist, is absolute or is dependent on the district, the value of the farms, etc.; and whether, seeing that in nearly all such cases such a standard of value would be excessive, the Local Government Board will give directions to have such a rule or practice modified if it so exists?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe hon. Member is under a misapprehension in assuming that maintenance is valued in all such cases as that referred to in the question at 10s a week. No hard and fast rule is laid down, but each case is dealt with on its merits by the Local Government Board, having regard to the class of the farm on which the claimant is maintained.
Mr. KELLYasked on what grounds was Michael O'Donnell, of Kinletter, Ballybofey (2,330, Stranorlar, county Donegal, sub-committee), deprived of his pension; and had the Local Government Board before them the fact that this man is fifteen months younger than his brother Neil, who has been in receipt of a pension for the last two and a half years?
§ Mr. BIRRELLI would refer the hon. Member to my reply to his similar question on the 11th inst., to which I have nothing to add.