§ Mr. BOLANDasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether, in the case of the application for an old age pension by Norah Brennan, Beenbane, Waterville, which has now been granted on the admission by the pension officer that she was four years of age in 1891, he will now see that she recovers the arrears of pension due since her claim was first approved by the local sub-committee in February, 1909, in view of the fact that the Census Office was responsible for the delay in enabling the claimant to substantiate her application?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEMy inquiries in this case are not yet complete, but I will communicate further with the hon. Member as soon as the necessary information has been obtained and a decision arrived at.
§ Mr. SCANLANasked the Chief Secretary whether he has received from the Skreen (county Sligo) old age pension subcommittee a resolution proposed by the parish priest of Templeboy, and seconded by the Protestant rector of Skreen, contradicting the official statement as to the invariable practice of pension officers in Ireland appealing against awards of pensions by local committees in all cases where the age of the claimant is not evidenced by the Census returns of 1841 or 1851, and as to the invariable practice of the Local Government Board in deciding all such cases 94W in favour of the pension officers; and whether he can name any case in Skreen district, or any other district in county Sligo, in which the practice alleged against the pension officers and the Local Government Board has not been followed?
§ Mr. BIRRELLI have received the resolution referred to, and, as I have already informed the hon. Member, the Local Government Board do not invariably decide against applicants for old age pensions whose names do not appear in the Census Returns. As appeals are not registered according to localities, it would be a matter of very great difficulty to separate those from the Skreen district from those from the rest of Ireland for the purpose of ascertaining in how many cases the Board may have allowed pensions in the district mentioned to persons whose ages are not recorded in the Census Returns.
§ Mr. SCANLANasked the Chief Secretary whether his attention had been called to the circumstances of the application of Patrick M'Andrew, of Lugdoon, Temple-boy, Sligo, for an old age pension; whether he was aware that the Skreen sub-pension committee unanimously passed this man's claim and awarded him a pension of 5s. per week, having had before them, inter alia, the evidence of an old man in the district, aged ninety, and of a member of the committee who is over seventy years of age, and of several other persons, that of their own knowledge the applicant was qualified as to age; whether the Local Government Board, in deciding the appeal, had any, and, if so, what evidence contrary to that upon which the committee decided; whether the Board sent an inspector to see the applicant; and if he would state what steps the Government propose to take in order to have justice done in this case?
§ Mr. BIRRELLPatrick M'Andrew was granted a pension of 5s. a week by the Skreen pension sub-committee as stated. So far as the Local Government Board are aware, the only evidence submitted was a statement by an old man who alleged that he himself was eighty-three years of go, and that Patrick Mc Andrew was seventy-two years old, but no proof was given of these assertions. According to the Census Return of 1851, M'Andrew would now he only sixty-eight years old. An inspector was not sent to visit him.
§ Mr. O'SULLIVANasked why the claim, of Mr. John Doody, of Gortdroumakiery, 95W Muckross, Killarney, to a pension was disallowed by the Local Government Board; whether Mr. Doody produced a baptismal certificate of his sister, showing that the Census in her case was three years wrong, and that the same occurred in his case; whether he produced statements from several people who knew him showing that he was over seventy; and whether, under these circumstances, the Local Government Board will reconsider his case?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Local Government Board upheld the pension officer's appeal on the ground that John Doody had not reached the statutory age. It is the case that the age of one of his sisters is understated to the extent of two years in the Census Return of 1841, but as John is not mentioned at all in that Return, there could be no misstatement in his case. In the 1851 Census Return his age is recorded as nine years. Statements were submitted to the effect that he was over seventy years years old, but they did not amount to proof of the fact. There appears to be no reason for reconsidering the case, even if it were open to the Board to do so.
§ Mr. O'SULLIVANasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether he is aware that in the case of the application for a pension of Nanno Murhill, of Gortagullane, Muckross, Killarney, the local committee and the pension officer were satisfied that she was over seventy years; whether a photograph of the applicant was sent to the Local Government Board; and will he explain on what grounds the Local Government Board based their decision to disallow the pension?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe facts are generally as stated in the question, except that the pension officer did not inform the Local Government Board that he was satisfied that Nanno Murhill was over seventy years of age. There was no record of this woman in the Census Return of her parents' family in 1841, and as in the Census of 1851 her age was given at four years, the Local Government Board felt bound to uphold the appeal which the pension officer had made.
§ Mr. MacNEILLasked what are the alleged grounds for the refusal of the Local Government Board to approve the granting of an old age pension to John Lipsett, of Rossnowlagh, Ballyshannon, who has been twice granted a pension by the local committee, and whose claim has been twice.set aside by the Local Government Board 96W without apparently any evidence or consideration; whether the Government is aware of the prevailing discontent created by the action of the Local Government Board in setting aside pensions granted by local committees on full investigation of the facts of the case; and whether it is proposed to find any remedy for this grievance by way of appeal from the decisions of the Local Government Board or otherwise?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Local Government Board upheld the pension officer's appeal on the ground that they were satisfied that John Lipsett's means exceeded the statutory limit. He has the use of a farm of twenty-eight acres of good land. I am not aware of the prevailing discontent in regard to the action of the Board as suggested in the question.