§ Mr. SHEEHANasked the Chief Secretary on what grounds Thomas O'Shea, of Glensharold, county of Limerick, has been denied an old age pension; whether, in the absence of his age record, which is not available at the Census Office, he furnished convincing proof to the pension authorities that he has reached the statutory age; whether six influential laymen, who are his seniors and who have known him intimately since childhood, together with his parish clergy, testified to this effect; and, seeing that many deserving applicants for old age pensions in Ireland have their claims accepted on similar testimony regarding age to that adduced by O'Shea, he will hold out any hope that this man, who has lived honestly and industriously by labour, will now be provided with the old age pension to which he is entitled?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThomas O'Shea's claim for an old age pension was disallowed for want of satisfactory evidence of age. There was no trace of his name in the Census Returns of 1841 or 1851. The claimant stated that he furnished to the pension committee the "proof" referred to in the question, but these being merely uncorroborated expressions of opinion on the part of his neighbours, could not be regarded as sufficiently conclusive.