§ Captain CRAIGasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether he is aware that serious delays are occurring in the payment of pensions to ex-members of the Royal Irish Constabulary: and whether, seeing that so many members of that force have had to move from the counties or towns in which they were serving as policemen and are in consequence often unable to obtain credit in their new domicile, he will make the necessary arrangements to have all pensions paid promptly on the days on which they are due?
§ Sir H. GREENWOODI have looked into this matter very carefully, and am satisfied that, having regard to the volume of work to be disposed of within a limited time, and to the fact that the machinery for dealing with it had, to a great extent, to be improvised at short notice, the number of cases of serious delay has been remarkably small. Such delays as have occurred have been mainly I due to change of address on the part of 2093W the pensioner since his pension papers were filled in by him at the time of disbandment. It was inevitable that, in a number of cases of this kind, the pension should be issued before notification of the change of address, reached the Pensions Branch of the Royal Irish Constabulary Office, but these mistakes have been promptly rectified when brought to notice. Delays due to other causes than the non-receipt of notification of change of address have been very infrequent.