This article is from page 2 of the 2009-10-06 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
THE increased demand on the free legal advice centre in Ennis has re- sulted in its hours of availability be- ing lengthened substantially.
The facility had been in operation two hours a week, but the increase in queries from members of the public has prompted it to be made available six hours a week. The increase is be- ing attributed, in part, to the increase in numbers of people who are find- ing themselves unemployed in recent peeve detse
The free legal advice clinic (FLAC) is co-ordinated by the Citizens’ In- formation Centre in Clare. A team of qualified solicitors provides advice and information to members of the public, who are unsure what their op- tions are.
Paul Woulfe, of the Citizens’ In- formation Centre, said an average of between 15 and 20 appointments are being made with the service on a weekly basis.
‘There has been a huge increase in queries. A lot of it is related to the economic downturn,” he said.
‘The increase is in response to demand. We used to just run on Thursday evenings, but now we hold clinics on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons also,” he said.
Through the clinics, members of the public receive information on le- gal issues, including family law, em- ployment law and consumer law.
‘More and more, people are be- coming unemployed and they are looking for advice and support,” said Mr Woulfe.
As many cases related to the work- place go before the Employment Ap-
peals Tribunal (EAT), the citizens information service is playing a role. “We do a lot of advocacy work in the EAT,’ said Mr Woulfe.
‘The economic recession 1s putting tensions on families. Supports need to be put in place for people who are unemployed for the first time. People don’t have the extra income that they had before,” he said.
“In relation to employment law, we are getting queries about lay-offs and short-term work. People are trying to get redundancies out of employers,” he said.