§ Mr. ARTHUR LYNCHasked the Secretary to the Treasury whether he will inform the House as to the cause of the delay in dealing with the application of Patrick M'Namara, Kerry-road, Kildysart, for an old age pension, which was duly lodged not later than November, 1908?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEThe delay in this case is due to the failure of the claimant to produce satisfactory evidence of age in support of his claim, and to the necessity for having search made in the Census Returns. I understand that the claim is about to be submitted to the pension committee.
§ Mr. ARTHUR LYNCHasked the Secretary to the Treasury whether he can state the total number of claims for old age pensions lying at the Kilrush station without having been submitted to the county pension committee?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEThe number is 190.
§ Mr. ARTHUR LYNCHasked the Secretary to the Treasury whether he will state the number of applications for pensions which have been lying at the Kilrush station for nine months, eight months, seven months, six months, five months, 104W four months, three months, and two months respectively, without having yet been reported upon or submitted to the county pension committee?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEThe numbers are as follows: Nine months, 35; eight months, 66; seven months, 32; six months, 4; five months, 1; four months, 1; three months, 1; two months, 5. All these cases have been investigated by the pension officer, who has been awaiting the result of searches required to be made in the Census Returns in order to submit the cases to the pension committee for decision. These results have now been obtained and the claims will be sent forward at once. There appears to have been delay in dealing with these cases, and inquiry is being made into the matter.
§ Mr. ARTHUR LYNCHasked the Secretary to the Treasury whether he is aware that Mr. Martyn, pension officer of Kilrush, has refused to consider claims for old age pensions on the ground that four months previously he had already considered claims from the same applicants; and, if so, will he say what action he proposes to take in the matter?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEUnder proviso (a) to No. 9 (1) of the statutory regulations, where a claim has been disallowed by a pension committee, the pension officer is not bound to investigate a fresh claim made within four months if he is satisfied that there is a primâ facie reason to believe that the ground of disallowance is still in operation. I find on inquiry that the pension officer at Kilrush has not refused to re-investigate fresh claims, to which this proviso does not apply.
§ Mr. ARTHUR LYNCHasked the Secretary to the Treasury whether, in regard to the old age pension granted to Patrick Boyle, of Quilty, West Clare, and against which an objection has been raised by the pension officer, he is aware that the Very Reverend Canon Cahir, P.P., of the parish, certified that Patrick Boyle was over 70 years of age, and that two of the oldest men in the locality have forwarded to the Local Government Board a signed statement to the same effect; whether the ground of objection is that Patrick Boyle's name is not on the parish register; and whether, in view of these facts, he will give instructions that the pension be continued?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEIn this case a question was raised by the pension officer under the statutory regulations on the 105W ground that the pensioner had not attained the statutory age to qualify for pension. The local pension committee decided the question in favour of the pensoner, and the ease is now under appeal to the Local Government Board, with whose jurisdiction I have no power to interfere.
§ Mr. DEVLINasked the Secretary to the Treasury whether his attention has been called to the fact that at a meeting of the Lisburn, Belfast, and Aghalee old age pension sub-committee, held at Lisburn on 21st September last, a number of persons already in receipt of pensions were disqualified on the objection of the pension officer on the ground that their age was not proved by the Census Returns and that they could not obtain baptismal certificates, although they had been admitted for pensions on the certificates of clergymen that they were of the required age; that, in the case of one Arthur Gillen, of Lurgan, whose age was certified by the parish priest of Glenavy and by Dr. Mussen, the dispensary doctor, the Census of 1851 showed him to be only six years of age, and there was no trace of him in the Census of 1841, and the committee were quite satisfied that the man was over 70, the claim was disallowed because the Census was relied on; that the committee disallowed also all the pensions which they had passed in December last for 1st January on the strength of certificates from clergymen; that the pension officer advised those whose claims had been disallowed to appeal to the Local Government Board, as it was a legal question whether, in the absence of fraud, a pension once granted could be cancelled; will he say by what authority the pension committee is empowered to cancel pensions already passed; whether, in the case of appeals, the committee has power to continue the pension pending the decision on the appeal; and whether any evidence whatever, apart from the very doubtrul evidence of the Census Returns, is to be admitted in proof of age in the case of applicants for old age pensions in Ireland?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEThe pension subcommittee referred to, at their meeting on the 21st ult., disallowed, on questions raised by the pension officer, the pensions granted from 1st January last in eight cases in all, including the case of Arthur Gillen, on the ground that according to the Census records the statutory conditions as to age had not been fulfilled. In five of these cases appeals have been lodged, and106W are awaiting the decision of the Local Government Board. The pension officer does not appear to have tendered any advice such as that suggested in reference to the decision of the committee. The pension committee's authority for cancelling a pension on a question raised by a pension officer is Section 7 of the Old Age Pensions Act. In the case of an appeal against the committee's decision, the commitee has no power to give any directions as to the continuance or stoppage of the payment of the pension pending the result of the appeal.