asked the Minister for Local Government and Public Health whether he is aware that the application for old age pension of Joseph Doorley, Cormore, Ballinahown, has been refused owing to the applicant not being able to furnish a birth certificate, as no entry was made in Ballinahown Parish Church of births from 1850 for a number of years later, and whether, as the applicant has furnished a sworn affidavit, signed by two persons older than himself, he will have this case reinvestigated with a view of granting the pension.
WRITTEN ANSWERS. - OLD AGE PENSIONS (CLAIM OF JOSEPH DOORLEY).
SEAN O LAIDHIN
The facts are as stated by the Deputy. The required baptismal certificate is not available, and the claimant was merely recorded as full age at marriage on the 17th October, 1886. It appeared on the notes on the previous files that his parents were married on the 5th October, 1848. Affidavits from two neighbours were submitted in connection with the last appeal. The deponents expressed their belief that the claimant was over 70 years of age, but they made no mention of his position in the family as compared with a younger sister or brother, whose birth certificates might possibly be available in the Ballinahown Church, the records of which would appear to have been kept after the year 1855. If evidence of this nature be now available, it would be open to the claimant to make a new pension claim and forward it with the evidence in the ordinary way to the Pension Officer. If the case comes to me subsequently on appeal, it will be carefully investigated.