HC Deb 23 November 1916 vol 87 cc1646-7W
Mr. J. P. FARRELL

asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether he has yet completed his inquiries into the refusal of the Local Government Board to allow a pension to be paid to James Fox, of Rathbracken, Granard, although now clearly of the age of seventy years, unless he repays a sum paid him in error some three years ago; whether the Local Government Board have power to deprive a man entitled to a pension in this way; and will he direct that the matter be now rectified and the pension paid?

Mr. DUKE

I would refer the hon. Member to the reply given to his question on the 17th October, when the facts of the case were fully stated. The matter is not one in which the Irish Local Government Board have any power to interfere.

Mr. D. BOYLE

asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland why the old-age pension claim of Mrs. Bridget MacAndrew, Belderrigmore, Ballycastle pension sub-district, Mayo, has been disallowed by the Local Government Board, although the applicant is well known locally to be almost eighty years of age and without means?

Mr. DUKE

The Local Government Board inform me that a claim from this woman is at present under investigation, but no decision has yet been arrived at. Several previous claims have, however, been disallowed on the ground that the claimant failed to show that she was seventy years of age. In connection with one of these an inspector of the Board reported that claimant did not appear to be seventy years of age.

Mr. BOYLE

asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland how the estimate of the means of Michael and Catherine Walsh, Errew, Crossmolina, county Mayo, has been arrived at on which their claims to old age pensions have been disallowed by the Local Government Board; and is he aware that these old people are wholly dependent on their married son for a living and that their claims are considered deserving by the local pensions committee?

Mr. DUKE

The Local Government Board inform me that their estimate of means was based on the stock and crops on the farm on which the claimants reside. The farm has been assigned to a son, but the assignment on the face of it shows that the claimants had the old pension in view when making it, and therefore under Section 4 (3) of the Old Age Pensions Act, 1908, they are regarded as being still in possession of the income from the farm. Even assuming that there were other genuine grounds for making the assignment, the value of the claimants' lodging and maintenance would exceed the statutory limit of means.