This position enabled him to retain "a unique importance as adviser to British ministers and as their link with catholic interests in Ireland."
[1] On 24 June 1824, he was appointed to the Royal Commission for inquiring into the nature and extent of the Instruction afforded by the several Institutions in Ireland established for the purpose of Education where he served with the other Commissioners: Thomas Frankland Lewis, John Leslie Foster, William Grant and James Glassford.
[2] He was on generally good terms with Daniel O'Connell, though the latter was to accuse the government of using Blake as a token catholic.
In 1828 he published "Thoughts upon the catholic question, by an Irish Roman Catholic" which analysed the Irish question and made a number of recommendations to the British government: In 1831 he was a member of Lord Anglesey's 'inner conclave', and helped develop the scheme of national education, particularly encouraging teacher training.
He also played a role in the establishment of the Queen's Colleges in the late 1840s, a deeply divisive issue among Irish Catholics.