Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage

The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (An Roinn Tithíochta, Rialtais Áitiúil agus Oidhreachta) is a department of the Government of Ireland. It is led by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

Departmental team
The official headquarters and ministerial offices of the department are in The Custom House, Dublin. The departmental team consists of the following:
 * Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Darragh O'Brien, TD
 * Minister of State for Nature, Heritage and Electoral Reform: Malcolm Noonan, TD
 * Minister of State for Local Government and Planning: Alan Dillon, TD
 * Secretary General of the Department: Graham Doyle

Overview
The official headquarters and ministerial offices of the department are in The Custom House, Dublin 1.

The department is responsible for, among other matters:
 * housing
 * the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland
 * local authorities and related services
 * the supervision of elections including the general election and presidential elections, and electronic voting arrangements
 * Met Éireann, the weather forecasting service.
 * Tailte Éireann, a planned agency for surveying, registering ownership, and valuing land. It would combine the existing functions of Ordnance Survey Ireland, the Property Registration Authority, and the Valuation Office (founded for Griffith's Valuation).

History
In the Ministry of Dáil Éireann in the Irish Republic (1919–22), a Ministry of Local Government was established on 2 April 1919. In the Irish Free State, there was a Minister for Local Government as part of the first Executive Council of the Irish Free State established in 1922. The Department of Local Government and Public Health was given a statutory basis by the Ministers and Secretaries Act 1924. This act provided it with: "the administration and business generally of public services in connection with local government, public health, relief of the poor, care of the insane (including insane criminals), health insurance, elections to each House of the Oireachtas, elections to local bodies and authorities, registration of voters, maintenance of public roads, and highways, registration of births, deaths and marriages, and vital statistics and all powers, duties and functions connected with the same, and shall include in particular the business, powers, duties and functions of the branches and officers of the public service specified in the Third Part of the Schedule to this Act, and of which Department the head shall be, and shall be styled, an t-Aire Rialtais Aitiúla agus Sláinte Puiblí or (in English) the Minister for Local Government and Public Health."

It also assigned it with the following agencies:
 * The Local Government Board for Ireland, including appeals under the Old Age Pensions Acts.
 * The Inspectors of Lunatic Asylums in Ireland.
 * National Health Insurance Commission.
 * The Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages in Ireland.
 * Roads Department (formerly Ministry of Transport).
 * Clerk of the Crown and Hanaper so far as concerned with Elections.
 * General Nursing Council and Central Midwives Board.

Over the years the name and functions of the department have changed several times by means of statutory instruments.