§ Mr. LUNDONasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland if he will state on what grounds the Local Government Board refused to grant pensions to Maurice Tobin, of Ballinanima, Kilfinane, county Limerick, and John Borenizer, of Kilfinane, county Limerick; was the local pension officer satisfied that those men were beyond seventy; and, in view of the fact that the members of the local pension committee are fully aware that these said poor men are entitled to their pensions and have threatened to resign unless they are granted, will an inspector be sent down to investigate their claims and see the -whole thing and report on it
§ Mr. BIRRELLThese claims were disallowed by the Local Government Board on appeal on the ground that the evidence submitted was not sufficiently conclusive to warrant them in holding that the claimants were seventy years of age. With regard to John Borenizer's claim, I would refer the hon. Member to the reply given to his question on this subject on the 22nd April. In the case of Maurice Tobin, he was unable to produce any satisfactory evidence that he had reached the age of seventy.
§ Mr. LUNDONasked whether the Local Government Board refused to grant a pension to Margaret O'Donnell though it had been passed by the local pension committee at Kilfinane, county Limerick; whether she produced a certificate from the local parish register which showed she was married on the 17th of February, 1863, and had also the evidence of several older persons to say she was well over seventy; and will the Board reconsider their decision and grant the pension to this poor woman?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe hon. Member presumably refers to the case of Margaret O'Connell. The facts are as stated, but it does not follow that the claimant is seventy because she was married fifty years ago. As a matter of fact, in the Census return of 1851 she was shown as being only five years of age, which would have left her seventeen years of age at her marriage and only sixty-seven years of age at present.