§ Mr. KEATINGasked the Chief Secretary whether persons admitted to union hospitals in Ireland under the Medical Charities Acts are not disqualified in any way under Poor Relief Acts from Parliamentary and local government election rights; whether he is aware that, in a circular issued to the pension officers in Ireland (O. A. P., No. 70), one of the queries to be answered as referring to the claims of old age pensioners who are obliged to seek medical relief in hospitals (No. 6) relates to the average weekly cost of the institution per inmate, taking into account the maintenance, treatment, and relief, including medical relief, of inmates, the cost of repairs, of warming, cleansing, and lighting the institution, of the provision of furniture, and of the salaries, rations, and uniforms of officers; whether this question has been framed with the object of showing that old age pensioners who make contributions of 4s. or a lesser amount do not pay the full average cost and that thus they are not qualified to continue to receive the old age pensions; whether, under the Poor Relief Acts for the recovery of relief issued by way of loan, guardians of unions cannot charge more than the ordinary average cost, excluding medical relief cost, salaries of officers and rations, as well as the cost of repairs, etc.; whether the pensions of old age pensioners are inalienable; whether, through the operations of this and similar circulars, a number of old age pensioners have been deprived of the pensions; and, if so, whether he will give instructions to the Local Government Board to reconsider all cases in which they gave judgment against the pensioners on information based on these circulars when the pensioners at the time were inmates of the hospitals.
§ Mr. BIRRELLPersons maintained in Poor Law hospitals are in receipt of relief under the Poor Relief (Ireland) Acts, and not the Medical Charities Act, 1851, and do not come within the provisions of Section 5 of the Registration (Ireland) Act, 1885. The Local Government Board1374W have not issued the circular referred to in the question. Under Section 6 of the Poor Relief (Ireland) Act, 1862, persons who claim on admission to workhouse fever hospitals or infirmaries to pay, and actually do pay the full average cost of maintenance therein as stated in the Act, are not subject to any disfranchisement, and therefore do not come within the proviso in Section 3 (1) (a) (iii) of the Old Age Pensions Act, 1908. Pensions are inalienable under Section 6 of the Old Age Pensions Act, 1908. Persons have been declared to be disqualified to receive pensions who do not fulfil the conditions laid down in Section 6 of the Poor Relief (Ireland) Act, 1862. The Local Government Board have no power to reconsider any decision given by them on appeals arising under the Old Age Pensions Act.