Centenarian snub - Nonsensical rule must be changed

SELDOM has the State acted in a more unedifying manner than in its shoddy treatment of centenarian Hanoria O’Leary.

Imagine her dismay on learning she would not qualify for the customary €2,540 award when she reached the venerable age of 100 on June 24.

The bureaucratic explanation? She no longer resided in Ireland.

To her credit, President Mary McAleese sent her personal greetings but a Government whose ministers have just secured a 10% pay rise held onto her money.

Ironically, not being an English citizen, neither did she get a telegram from the Queen.

Though she had raised her family in Ireland, the rule is that by moving from Sneem to Bristol she lost her entitlement as a centenarian.

That is the height of bureaucratic nonsense. The idea that an emigrant would not be recognised on reaching 100 is mean-spirited and utterly unacceptable.

So much for the famous Irish diaspora.

The Government should change the rules immediately and present Mrs O’ Leary with the award she richly deserves.