A partly elected Irish Council would take control of many of the departments thitherto administered by the Dublin Castle administration, and have limited tax-raising powers.
[8] In a speech in Stirling in November 1905, Henry Campbell-Bannerman, about to take office as Liberal prime minister, promised "an instalment of representative control" for Ireland while implying no Home Rule.
[12] William O'Brien, a nationalist outside the IPP, supported both the 1904 devolution scheme and the 1907 bill as a step in the right direction, or "Home Rule by instalments".
[3] The Irish Trades Union Congress opposed the proposed council as "a constitutional cripple, more likely than otherwise to hamper and irritate industrial improvement in Ireland".
[21] Conor Mulvagh suggests the 1907 bill's failure fed into a current of disillusion and malaise in the IPP that opened the way for more advanced nationalist alternatives like Sinn Féin.
[11] William O'Brien wrote in 1923, "It is now obvious enough that, had the Irish Council Bill been allowed to pass, the Partition of Ireland would never have been heard of.