The Free Legal Advice Centre’s 2011 Annual Report was launched on 18 June by Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence Alan Shatter. The Minister has a personal connection with FLAC, as he volunteered with the organisation during the 1970s and was Chairperson in 1974.
The Annual Report identifies that there has been an increase in queries to FLAC’s Telephone Information Line about debt, as well as queries about other areas of law such as family, employment and housing. Nearly 13,000 calls were made in 2011 to the FLAC Telephone Information Line, which is a 39% increase from 2010. The Annual Report also highlights the extensive advocacy work undertaken by FLAC on topics such as debt law reform, consumer credit law, recognition of transgender persons, deaf jurors and social welfare law.
Noeline Blackwell, FLAC Director General commented “FLAC has focused on reforming laws around personal debt because we have seen terrible impact of over indebtedness on people contacting us, having dealt some 83,000 legal queries since the start of 2008. We have kept it simple: we need an independent, out-of –court debt settlement structure that will examine people’s personal debt in a holistic way and where possible aim to keep people in their homes.”
Also commenting on legal regulatory reform, Ms. Blackwell said that the Irish government needed to better understand the justice gap in Ireland before it truly reformed legal services in Ireland in a manner that would broaden the remit of access to justice.
Click here to see a FLAC press release on the Annual Report.
Click here to read the Annual Report.