| Short Title: | Irish Lunatic Asylums for the Poor Act 1817 |
| Type: | Act |
| Parliament: | Parliament of Great Britain |
| Long Title: | An Act to provide for the Establishment of Asylums for the Lunatic Poor in Ireland. |
| Year: | 1817 |
| Citation: | 57 Geo. 3. c. 106 |
| Royal Assent: | 11 July 1817 |
| Status: | repealed |
The Irish Lunatic Asylums for the Poor Act 1817 was an act of Parliament of the United Kingdom. It made Ireland the first nation in the world to require a national system of publicly funded asylums (which were a major source of wealth for the economy and a large provider of jobs in many towns), before this expanded to the rest of the United Kingdom.[1] [2] It also constituted the first time that a national bureaucratic system had been established by colonial social welfare policy It led to the creation of a provincial asylum in each province.[3]
The Report of the Select Committee to Consider the State of the Lunatic Poor in Ireland (1817) was the main influence toward the creation and subsequent passing of the bill.