Notable Legislation
During the previous years many notable Acts of social legislation were pressed for and passed in Ireland’s interest:
- The creation of the Congested Districts Board in 1891, which built public works for, and provided employment in, the poor districts of western Ireland.
- The extensive 1898 Local Government Act abolished the old landlord-dominated Grand Juries and replaced them by forty-nine county, urban and rural district councils, managed by Irish people for the administration of local affairs. The councils were very popular in Ireland as they established a political class, who showed themselves capable of running Irish affairs. It also stimulated the desire to attain Home Rule and to manage affairs on a national level. A less positive consequence was that the councils were largely dominated by the Irish Party, becoming the wielders of local patronage.
- Irish Department of Agriculture Act and Technical Instructors Act (1899) (initiative of Horace Plunkett)
- Tenant Land Purchase Acts: (Wyndham Act 1903 and Birrell Act 1909), contributing greatly to the solution of the contentious land question
- Labourers (Ireland) Acts (Bryce Act 1906 and Birrell Act 1911) (the Sheehan Acts), providing rural labourers with extensive housing
- Town Tenants Act (1906)
- Evicted Tenants Act (1907)
- Old Age Pensions Act (1908)
- Irish (Catholic) University Act (1908)
- Housing of the Working Classes (Ireland) Act (1908) (the Clancy Act)
Read more about this topic: Irish Parliamentary Party
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