A new Irish mind has now to be taken into account, and to be made part of any ameliorative Irish policy.

Hence it was not only possible, but desirable, to administer State help more democratically in 1899 than in 1891.

The policy of the Congested Districts Board was a notable advance upon the inaction of the State in the pre-famine times, and upon the system of doles and somewhat objectless relief works of the latter half of the nineteenth century; but the policy of the new departure now under review was no less notable a departure from the paternalism of the Congested Districts Board.

When that body was called into existence it was thought necessary to rely on persons nominated by the Government.

When the Department was created eight years later it was found possible, owing to the broadening of the basis of local government and to the moral and social effect of the new movement, to rely largely on the advice and assistance of persons selected by the people themselves.
The two departments are in constant consultation as to the co-ordination of their work, so as to avoid conflict of administrative system and sociological principle in adjoining districts; and much has already been done in this direction.