Under section 25 of the Irish Church Act, 1869, provision was made for the Commissioners of Church Temporalities in Ireland, to vest any church, ecclesiastical building or structure, which appeared ruinous and not suitable for restoration as a place of public worship, and yet deserving of being maintained as a national monument by reason of its architectural character or antiquity, in the Secretary of the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland, to be held by such secretary, his heirs and assigns, upon trust for the Commissioners of Public Works, to be preserved as a national monument and not to be used as a place of worship.
It was as a result of this Act that the Commissioners of Public Works were given their first collection of national monuments. The Commissioners of Church Temporalities also provided a sum of £50,000 to the Commissioners of Public Works for the maintenance of the vested structures.