asked the Minister for Local Government and Public Health whether he is aware that Mrs. Maria Purcell, Market Square, Kilcullen, Co. Kildare, has been refused an old age pension on the ground of insufficient evidence of age; further, whether Mrs. Purcell claims to have been twenty-six years of age when she was married on the 8th January, 1879; that no record of her baptism can be found, as the Kilcullen Parish Register was destroyed when the vestry was burned down some years ago; that several residents who are old age pensioners can verify that she is over seventy years of age, and whether, in view of those circumstances, he will reconsider the awarding of a pension.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. ORAL ANSWERS. - KILCULLEN OLD AGE PENSION CLAIM.
This claim to the old age pension was disallowed on the 4th instant on the ground of insufficient evidence of age. There was no statement or affidavit from the claimant showing that she was twenty-six years of age at marriage. The registration of her marriage on the 8th January, 1879, was traced in the books of the Registrar-General, Dublin. She was merely recorded as full age. A letter from the Parish Priest was submitted showing that her baptismal certificate is not available and letters of testimony from two neighbours were submitted stating that she was over seventy years of age. They mentioned no relevant fact in support of their opinion, nor was any evidence produced to establish the age of a younger brother or sister.
Proof by the affidavit of competent witnesses of her exact age at marriage would be valuable, as would also be proof of the age of her next younger brother or sister, founded on a baptismal, school or marriage record. If the claimant is in a position to submit such additional evidence it would be open to her to make a new claim and forward it with the evidence in the ordinary way to the pension officer.
Will the Minister accept the marriage certificate as evidence of age? She states that at 26 years of age she was married, in the year 1872?
If the certificate states that——
Yes. Will the Minister not take into consideration that the vestry was burned down, and that on a former occasion he accepted school roll books as evidence of age? In this case the roll-books of the girls' school have been destroyed and cannot be found, so that there is no other way of proving the lady's age except the evidence of a couple of old-age pensioners in the district?
If these old-age pensioners mention any relevant fact connecting their age with hers, that would help us to adjudicate in the matter, but without that it does not count as evidence at all.