§ Mr. MacVEAGHasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether he can state from whom the pensions officer of the Aghalee, Belfort, Lisburn, sub-committee received the information on which he based the allegation that John M'Leavy, of Derry, Killultagh, Ballinderry, had entered into an agreement securing maintenance for himself and his wife for life; and whether he persists in the allegation in view of the applicant's affidavit to the contrary?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEThe responsibility for the acceptance or rejection of M'Leavy's claim rests, not with the Pension Officer, but with the Local Pension Committee and the Local Government Board, both of whom have decided against his claim.
§ Mr. O'SULLIVANasked the Chief Secretary whether Mrs. Mary Carmody, of 2404W Gortatlea, Castleisland, has been deprived of her pension because she cannot find her baptismal certificate; and whether, seeing that the local pension committee, who know this woman, are satisfied that she is of the required age, and that she is almost destitute, he will request the Local Government Board to make further inquiries regarding her?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Local Government Board allowed the pension officer's question, on the ground that Mrs. Carmody had not reached the statutory age. It is not open to the Board to reconsider their decision.
§ Mr. JOHN PHILLIPSasked the Chief Secretary if he will say why it is that Mrs. Bridget Corcoran, of Clooncolligan, Johnston's Bridge, in the Ballinamuck sub-pension committee, county Longford, No. 2,052, has been refused a pension, although the same was granted to her by the pension committee on 22nd December, 1910, and as through a mistake her age appears in the Census of 1851 as being only nine years, while she has documentary evidence to prove that her father died in 1840; and if, under those circumstances, the pension officer will be directed to give Mrs. Corcoran the pension, considering that she has reached the statutory age, although not correctly recorded in the Census of 1851?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Census Returns showed the claimant as nine years old in 1851, and not in the family in 1841, while her father died in 1840, and no other satisfactory evidence was produced. In these circumstances the Local Government Board came to the conclusion that the claimant was a posthumous child, born soon after the taking of the Census on the 6th June, 1841; and they are prepared to hold that she will attain the statutory age when the 6th June next is past.
§ Mr. HACKETTasked the Chief Secretary whether he can state the reasons upon which the Local Government Board refused an old age pension to James Guilfoyle, Lisheen, Templemore, county Tipperary?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Local Government Board upheld the pension officer's appeal against the award of a pension to Guilfoyle on the ground that his means, calculated in accordance with the terms of Section 4 of the Old Age Pensions Act, 1908, exceeded the statutory limit.