§ Mr. HUGH LAWasked the Secretary to the Treasury if he will state upon what grounds the pension granted to Anthony O'Donnell, of Meenaleck, county Donegal, was withdrawn, seeing that the man is shown by the Census of 1851 to be of the required age?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSENo pension was withdrawn in this case, as no pension had been granted. The claim for pension was disallowed on appeal by the Local Government Board. I have no means of knowing what reasons actuated the Local Government Board in reaching their decision.
§ Mr. HUGH LAWasked the Secretary to the Treasury if he can state the grounds upon which the pension allowed to Mrs. Nancy Cannon, widow, of Carrowcannon, county Donegal, register No. 452, Dunfanaghy sub-committee, has been withdrawn; and whether he is aware that the question of her age was satisfactorily settled by reference to the Census of 1841, and that she holds in common with a married son a holding of 11 acres, valuation £4 10s.?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEThe decision of the local pension committee allowing the pension in this case was reversed by the Local Government Board on appeal. I have no means of knowing what reasons actuated the Local Government Board in their decision.
§ Mr. J. P. FARRELLasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether he is aware that numbers of persons who were passed for old age pensions are now being deprived of same in County Longford; on what basis the valuation of farms is computed by pensions officers; whether any effort beyond mere guesswork is made to 588W ascertain the actual needs of these poor people; and whether he is aware that suffering is the result of deprival of these pensions in many cases?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEA comparatively small number of pensions have been cancelled in this county on the ground that the pensioners have not reached the statutory age, or that their yearly means were in excess of the statutory limit. The incomes of small farmers are ascertained by actual investigation, due regard being paid both to the quality of the land and the description of stock kept.
Mr. CHARLES MacVEIGHasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether his attention has been directed to the case of Margaret McGlinchy, of Tieve-clougher, Stranorlar, East Donegal, whose name appears in the Census of 1841 as of three years of age, yet she has been deprived of her pension for seven weeks and had to make a fresh application to the pension officer before she received it; and whether he will take steps to have her paid the money that has thus been withheld from her?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEThe pensioner, Margaret McGlinchy, having been found to be eight years of age in the Census Returns of 1851, a question was raised by the Pension officer as to whether she was entitled to continue to receive a pension. The local Sub-pension committee decided on the 15th September last that she was not entitled to the pension, and, in the absence of any appeal by the pensioner to the Local Government Board, payment of the pension was stopped. Another claim was, however, made by her ok 6th October, and it then appeared that in the Census Returns of 1841 her age was given as three years, and her claim was accordingly allowed. I have no power to direct payment of the pension for the intervening period of three weeks, during which, under the provisions of the Act, she was not entitled to receive the pension.