§ Mr. PATRICK O'BRIENasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is aware that the Kilkenny borough local pension committee have been refused by the Treasury facilities for obtaining legal assistance in questions of law arising in the course of their duties; that, after long correspondence, in which both Treasury and Local Government Board had been asked to refer them to the words relied in officially as giving jurisdiction to committees to reopen the question of the age of persons already in receipt of pensions, both these Departments failed to refer them to any such words, but the latter in general terms specified a certain Sub-section of the Act; that the committee then came to a decision, specifically reviewing each grammatical Clause of said Sub-section, and deciding that neither there nor elsewhere in the Act were they given any jurisdiction; and whether, seeing that the Local Government Board have, by letter dated 10th inst., intimated to the clerk of committee (Mr. Doheny, solicitor, Kilkenny) that they regarded the committee's decision as so set out as a refusal to determine the question raised by the pension officer, and would accordingly, under their powers in the Act, proceed to decide it themselves, he will take steps to ensure that the committee's decision will not thus be overridden, unless and until it can be shown to be incorrect in point of law and the grounds for attributing jurisdiction to determine open decisions in matters of age to the committee shown by the officials to have such jurisdiction exercised, which up to this has not been done?
§ Mr. LLOYD-GEORGEArrangements are in operation under which pension committees can obtain legal advice upon points of law arising in the course of the discharge of their duties through the Local Government Board, and, in these circumstances, the Treasury has not felt justified in sanctioning expenditure by such com- 2545W mittees upon obtaining advice through other channels. As regards the particular case of the Kilkenny committee, the Treasury have undertaken, as the committee ware not satisfied with the advice given them through the Local Government Board for Ireland, to make themselves responsible for defending any action taken by the committee in accordance with that advice. The competence of the Local Government Board to decide questions coming before them in the manner explained in the latter part of the question is a matter upon which their decision can, if necessary, be challenged in the courts by any person who may regard himself as aggrieved by it, and the Treasury would not be justified in interfering in the manner suggested in the question.