Statute Law Repeals - Law Commission - Ministry of Justice

4.24 The Dublin House of Industry Act 1820 34 concerned the governance of the House
of Industry. It authorised the lord lieutenant or other chief governor of Ireland to
appoint a salaried governor to manage the institution (in lieu of five governors
who had operated under a previous Irish Act of 1800), 35 overseen by up to seven
appointed visitors who were responsible for both the state of the institution and
general regulation of its staff. In 1838 the House of Industry was vested in the
poor law commissioners who then appropriated part of it to workhouse use for the
North Dublin Union.
4.25 The Dublin Hospitals Regulation Act 1856 36 made provision for the management
of hospitals attached to the House of Industry, together with other hospitals in
Dublin which were supported by parliamentary grant. The various hospitals were
vested in the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland. The lord lieutenant was
to establish a board of governors to manage the various Dublin hospitals, to
appoint a board of superintendence to monitor performance (in terms of patient
care, staff conduct and building maintenance) and to report annually, and to
regulate the numbers and nature of staff to be employed in the hospitals. The
Public Works Commissioners were empowered to undertake repairs and
improvements to the House of Industry and to the Westmoreland Lock hospitals.
4.26 The House of Industry group of hospitals (which were all medical training
hospitals) ran for over 200 years until 1987, at which point they closed and their
operations were amalgamated with the Jervis Street Hospital to become the
Beaumont Hospital. On that basis the two surviving Acts are no longer required.
Dublin Eye and Ear Hospital
4.27 The Dublin Eye and Ear Hospital Act 1897 37 effected the merger of two specialist
hospitals in Dublin which had each outgrown their accommodation. The National
Eye and Ear Infirmary Ireland had been established in Molesworth Street in 1814,
utilising a lease which was due to expire in September 1901. St. Mark’s
Ophthalmic Hospital and Dispensary for Diseases of the Eye and Ear was
established in 1844 in Lincoln Place, under a lease expiring in March 1896. Both
hospitals were built to treat poor persons suffering from eye or ear disease.
4.28 The 1897 Act led to the purchasing of a site for the amalgamated Dublin Eye and
Ear Hospital in Adelaide Road in 1899, and subsequent erection of the new
buildings. The Act formally amalgamated the hospitals, giving the new body
corporate status, making arrangements for governance through a council,
dissolving the old trusts, effecting transfer of property to the new organisation and
sale of the original sites so that the moneys could be applied for the ongoing
support of the hospital, and ensuring that treatment could be provided to both
inpatients and outpatients (although excluding treatment of infectious disease).
4.29 In February 1904 patients from the constituent hospitals were transferred to the
new building. Today the hospital exists on the same site, now named the Royal
Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital. In the UK the 1897 Act is now spent.
34 1 Geo.4 c.49 (1820). This Act was repealed in Ireland in 2007.
35 40 Geo.3 c.40 (1800) (Ire), repealed in Ireland in 2007.
36 19 & 20 Vict. c.110 (1856). In Ireland this Act was repealed in 2007.
143