Congested Districts Board for Ireland

[4] Its purpose was to alleviate poverty by paying for public works, such as building piers for small ports on the west coast, to assist fishing, modernising farming methods or sponsoring local factories to give employment and stop emigration from Ireland – the wider effect would see indigenous (and non-Government funded) initiatives.

came from the Church of Ireland[citation needed], but by 1912 other funds had been allocated and its assets totalled £530,000 (equivalent to £40 million at 2010 values).

was run by local Catholic priests, was not properly supervised by the British Government and was being used to fund church projects such as Industrial schools where the young workers were underpaid.

He felt that capital loaned to real businesses would be more effective than advancing the money to parish councils run by priests.

was the Co-Operative movement which was founded by Sir Horace Plunkett who had been shocked by his experiences working as a member of the first Board.

This involved the board purchasing land from larger estates and expanding the properties in order to create smaller more efficient holdings.

The board solved this issue by investing in large scale drainage operation which also doubled the productive value of hundreds of acres across the estates.

As a result, the flow of emigration from the west and north-west of Ireland was not converted into internal migration to the more developed east, as might have been hoped.