[1] Upon its establishment, the Board took over the functions of the Irish Poor Law Commissioners with respect to Boards of Guardians of Poor Law Unions, and also dealt with urban municipal government (town commissioners and borough corporations).
Generally the vice-president was in effective charge with the political members absent; but in Arthur Balfour's presidency there were tensions.
[5] The Congested Districts Board for Ireland was set up separately in 1891 to deal specifically with areas with large numbers of small uneconomic farms.
[8][9] On 25 May 1921, near the end of the Republic's guerrilla war, the Custom House was burned out by Dublin Brigade of the Irish Republican Army, destroying most of the Board's records.
In the Irish Free State the Ministers and Secretaries Act 1924 formally transferred the Board's functions to the Department of Local Government and Public Health,[12] whose successor, the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, is still based in the Custom House.