§ Mr. WILLIAM O'BRIENasked the Chief Secretary whether he is aware that John Lynch, an applicant for an old age pension, living in county Cork, produced a certificate from the parish priest of Glounthare, the parish in which he was born; that he had failed to find in his books the registration of the applicant's own baptism, but had found an entry of the baptism of a brother two years younger than the applicant who, if now alive, would be above seventy years of age, and further produced the evidence of the oldest man in the parish that the applicant was older than his deceased brother, who, if now alive, would admittedly have passed the age limit; whether this evidence satisfied the Mallow pensions committee, including both the Protestant and Catholic clergymen of the town, that the applicant was entitled to his pension; and, if so, on what grounds has their unanimous recommendation been set aside?
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§ Mr. BIRRELLI would refer the hon. Member to the reply given by my right hon. Friend the Secretary to the Treasury to the question of the hon. Member for North-East Cork on the 27th April last. In July last the Local Government Board decided that Lynch was not entitled to a pension, as he failed to prove that he had attained the statutory age. The documents relating to the case are not now in the Board's possession, but no evidence of the kind mentioned in the question appears to have been submitted to them, although both the claimant and the Mallow Urban District Pension Sub-committee were requested to forward any evidence of age which they possessed.
§ Mr. HACKETTasked the Chief Secretary whether, in view of the fact that several inmates of the workhouses in Ireland are unable to obtain certificates of birth, he will advise the Local Government Board to accept the certificate of the master of the workhouse taken from the admission book as evidence of age in all cases where the applicants are unable to obtain a certificate of birth?
§ Mr. BIRRELLI would refer the hon. Member to the concluding paragraph of my reply to the Question of the hon. Member for North Kilkenny on 12th July last.