FLAC report records busiest year for telephone service
The Free Legal Advice Centre (FLAC) Annual report recorded the busiest year yet for its telephone line, with family law, housing, credit and debt being the most frequently broached topics with the service.
Speaking today at the FLAC Annual Report for 2014 launch, Minister for Justice and Equality, Frances Fitzgerald TD, said that the annual grant of €98,000 had been maintained for 2015, despite other cuts to justice expenditure.
The report recorded that FLAC’s telephone information and referral line experienced its busiest year ever in 2014, answering 15,005 calls from members of the public. This is an increase of over 10% on 2013.
2014 was also the first time since 2011 that the number of people phoning FLAC exceeded the number attending at legal advice clinics.
Family law was a major topic on FLAC’s phone lines in 2014, accounting for over 21% of calls and almost 34% of callers to FLAC centres.
Calls to the service about housing issues rose by more than 80% last year, with housing problems now being the second most frequent inquiry after family law.
Credit and Debt were also big topics for FLAC’s telephone lines in 2014, with nearly 9% of calls received on FLAC’s telephone information and referral line and over 10% of callers to FLAC centres.
The Minister also mentioned the Family Mediation Service (FMS) at the launch, which is a free, confidential service in which a professional mediator assists those involved in family breakdown, and in particular separating or divorcing couples, both married and non-married, to negotiate the terms of their separation or divorce.
The FMS also assists same sex couples, couples who have never lived together or even had a relationship but have a child together. The mediator assists people to communicate better with one another for the sake of their children and to reach their own agreed and informed decisions concerning some or all of the issues.
It also deals with a small number of cases which involve conflict between other members of a family such as parents and children, adopted and step children, grandparents and grandchildren and brothers and sisters involved in disputes over elderly parents.
