§ Mr. DELANYasked the Chief Secretary whether he is aware that the Cloney-gowan, King's County, sub-committee granted a pension of 5s. a week to Mary Dempsey, Feoramona, Cloneygowan, Portarlington, on 1st May, 1911; that the applicant produced a certificate of her sister Sarah Gipson's baptism, which showed that the said Sarah Gipson was baptised on the 10th July, 1837, and further made a 923W declaration before a magistrate that she, Mary Dempsey, was only one year and a half younger than her sister, which would leave her over seventy-two years of age; and if he will say upon what grounds this woman was denied a pension by the Local Government Board?
§ Mr. BIRRELLClaimant's name did not appear in the record of her family in the 1841 Census Return, and there was no trace of her family in the 1851 Census Return. An inspector of the Local Government Board, who investigated her case locally, was unable to report that from her appearance she was obviously over seventy. Accordingly, in the absence of any satisfactory proof of age, the Local Government Board were in August, 1911, unable to allow a pension. In the circumstances the Board have no power to reopen the consideration of her case, but it is open to claimant to renew her application for pension if she considers that the lapse of a year would strengthen her case.