Record domestic violence calls to Free Legal Advice Centres
Domestic violence-related calls to the State's Free Legal Advice Centres (Flac) reached a record level of 539 last year and queries in relation to family law accounted for more than a quarter of all calls answered.
The organisation received an estimated 53,103 calls to its information and referral line last year but only had the capacity to deal with about one in five of these queries, according to its annual report published today.
Family law remained the area in which Flac received the most queries, at 3,180 of the 11,435 calls answered. Callers to the phoneline frequently reported being unable to access a family law solicitor from the
Legal Aid Board
's private practitioner panel even though they had been approved for legal aid, Flac said.
The phoneline answered 2,341 employment law queries. Queries about grievance procedures, dismissal, bullying or harassment, and discrimination were all higher than in any previous year, it said.
READ MORE
'The overwhelming demand for Flac's services points to nothing less than a civil legal aid crisis,' Flac chief executive Eilis Barry said. 'As a small NGO, we cannot begin to meet this demand but the ways in which we work provide a blueprint for a new era of civil legal aid in this country.'
A perception that civil legal aid was 'about more money for lawyers' had perhaps created a resistance to its provision she said.
'This ignores the very high cost of not providing legal aid to children, families and communities, and the growing body of international research that shows unequivocally that investment in legal aid saves States more money than it costs. Civil Legal Aid needs to be treated like the vital public service which it is.'
Ms Barry said she hoped the example Flac provided would inform the Government's response. 'This response should include enabling and resourcing the Legal Aid Board to provide legal information and advice to address the huge unmet need for these services.'
It should also involve enabling the board to provide representation in employment, discrimination, social welfare and housing cases, she said, and include the provision of dedicated legal services for disadvantaged communities, including a properly-resourced national Traveller legal service, and a national network of community law centres.
Minister for Justice
Jim O'Callaghan
said Flac's funding had been increased by 12.6 per cent in 2025.
'The increase in calls relating to domestic violence, as highlighted in the report, is a stark reminder of the ongoing need for accessible legal information and support. I commend Flac for their tireless work in supporting vulnerable members of society and reaffirming the Government's commitment to tackling domestic and gender-based violence in all its forms.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
37 minutes ago
- Irish Times
If long-term renting is such a good solution, why don't more politicians do it?
The Government has opted to reject suggestions from various quarters, including some of its own , that it should establish a fund to allow Irish savers to finance the development of affordable housing for sale. Instead, it's going to entice international investors to do so. It will just be housing for rent, not sale, and it won't be affordable for most. Oblivious to the contradictory position of luring landlords while simultaneously persisting with the fantasy of being parties that support home ownership, Government policy is engineering a decline in people owning their own homes, and a commensurate rise in numbers renting. Hundreds of thousands of households will become poorer, and a small cohort of landlords will become a lot wealthier . Is this private rental sector into which more and more households are going to be corralled even fit for purpose? One issue is the fact that there is no deposit protection scheme in Ireland, despite the issue of deposits consistently being the second most common reason for disputes between landlords and tenants. These are schemes run in other countries by private companies or state agencies into which tenants pay their deposits, instead of handing them over to their landlord. The scheme then returns the deposit at the end of the tenancy, if all is well in the interim. Complaints of landlords not returning deposits to tenants drop significantly under such schemes. READ MORE There were 474 applications to the Residential Tenancies Board to resolve disputes about deposit retention in the first three months of 2025 alone. There has been a provision in Irish legislation for the establishment of such a scheme for a decade, but the section of the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2015 has never been commenced. Last February, People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy introduced a Bill to force the Government to establish the scheme. Nothing has happened since. There is also no definition of rent in Irish legislation to say what is included or not included under it. This lack of clarity facilitates large landlords in levying – according to recent media reports – up to an extra €200 per month for the use and upkeep of common areas. Common areas are places that tenants do not occupy exclusively and have no control over. In the US, large landlord Greystar (which is also present here) is facing a a class-action lawsuit after the Federal Trade Commission accused the company of imposing hidden 'junk' fees , which it denies. The FTC's lawsuit states that the fees 'make it impossible to actually rent from Greystar for the advertised prices'. It accuses the commission of over-reach. Such additional charges allows for circumvention of rent caps. Regardless of recent Government bluster about increasing security for tenants during the reform of Rent Pressure Zones, the fact remains that tenants of a 'small landlord' can face eviction for essentially spurious reasons such as the probably unprovable 'personal hardship ' of the landlord, or because a member of the landlord's family might need the property. The Government's strategy is that in order for rents for already financially stressed tenants to fall, rents for financially stressed tenants must first be allowed to rise Most renters in Ireland live a very legally precarious existence, regardless of how good their landlord is. Ireland is an outlier in this regard, compared to many countries with an established rental sector. Rent inflation in Ireland is 39 per cent higher than the European average , and housing costs in general are more than double this average when utility bills are factored in. Those hardest hit by affordability issues also include better-off renters. According to the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), in 2023 'middle-to-higher-income renters in Ireland are more likely to face high housing costs than their European counterparts'. Fourteen per cent of the richest Irish renters pay more than 30 per cent of their income on rent, versus 3 per cent on average elsewhere. Sixteen per cent of the next-wealthiest renters pay more than 30 per cent of their income on rent compared to 9 per cent on average elsewhere. The Government's strategy is that in order for rents for already financially stressed tenants to fall, rents for financially stressed tenants must first be allowed to rise. High rents will then attract international investment, which will then build apartments for rent, which will then reduce rents across the board. Ignoring for a moment the significant pain that will be inflicted on all tenants while enacting this strategy of building housing that the majority of renters do not want , recent research from Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies found that the benefits of the construction of new apartments for rent does not find its way down to help those who need affordable rents. Given previous rent inflation, it is highly unlikely rents will fall here in any meaningful way, if at all. On the regulatory front, local authorities are charged with inspecting private rented sector accommodation to ensure it is safe and compliant with regulations. They each have a target to inspect 25 per cent of the private rented dwellings in their area. In 2023, just nine out of 31 local authorities hit that target (Meath achieved 45 per cent), and nine failed to meet it. Galway City Council managed to inspect less than 3 per cent of the private rented stock in its area. In 2023, 23 local authorities reported that more than 90 per cent of inspected dwellings were found to be non-compliant with the required standards. There are other concerns: tenancies being misrepresented as less secure licence agreements; landlords wilfully ignoring legal requirements including having to provide their names to tenants; and investigations that take years by an under-resourced RTB. The fact is that whether renting from the Government's white knights – international investors – or the traditional small landlord, there are serious issues with the private rented sector that need to be addressed before the State can legitimately expect people to willingly rent a home instead of owning one. The minuscule proportion of Government politicians who rent (in a country where one in five people in the population generally are in the private rental sector) tells its own story. If more politicians don't choose to rent long-term, why do they believe so many of us should? Dr Lorcan Sirr is senior lecturer in housing at the Technological University Dublin
Irish Times
38 minutes ago
- Irish Times
Foreign affairs committee begins discussions on contentious Occupied Territories Bill
An Oireachtas committee will start discussing the Occupied Territories Bill on Tuesday, when senior officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs are questioned by TDs and Senators on a summary of the Bill published by the Government last week. The Bill begins pre-legislative scrutiny and will continue on Wednesday when Senator Frances Black , who originally proposed the legislation back in 2018, appears before the foreign affairs committee . Supporters of the Bill want it to be rushed through the Houses of the Oireachtas and passed into law before the summer break, but most sources acknowledge that is not feasible. Last week, the Government published the heads of the Bill – a section-by-section summary – of the Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025, its version of the Occupied Territories Bill proposed by Senator Black. READ MORE It would ban the import of goods produced in the Israeli settlements, which are, according to International Court of Justice, illegally occupied Palestinian territories. 'Daddy' Trump meets Nato, while defence, trade and Gaza dominate EU summit Listen | 44:28 However, the Government's version does not include a ban on services, which it says is not possible under European law, though that is disputed by pro-Palestine campaigners. The foreign affairs officials are expected to be questioned on this point. It is expected that many committee members will seek to agree on a recommendation for the inclusion of services in the proposed legislation when the pre-legislative process is completed and a report compiled for the Government. The process will continue over the coming weeks as the committee hears from several groups and interested parties, though it is not clear if the Israeli government will be invited to make a submission to the committee. Israel withdrew its ambassador, Dana Erlich, from Dublin last year in protest at what it said was the anti-Israel stance of the Irish Government, something strongly disputed by Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Simon Harris. Allowing the Bill to begin its passage through the legislative process was specifically cited by the Israelis as part of the reason for closing their embassy here. 'We have been putting in place arrangements for extra sittings,' said Fianna Fáil TD John Lahart, who chairs the committee. 'We'll produce a report which will tee up the Dáil debate on the Bill.' There is some nervousness in Government about the possible consequences of passing the Bill, with the US government and business organisations underscoring their opposition to the measure. While the amount of trade between the State and the Occupied Territories is minuscule, the proposed legislation is seen – by supporters and opponents – as an important test case. Other European countries, frustrated with the lack of EU action against Israel on Gaza, have been asking the Irish Government about the legislation.
Irish Times
38 minutes ago
- Irish Times
Iranian firm sought Irish diplomats' help for business deals with Vodafone, Eir and Three
A telecoms company with suspected ties to a key arm of the Iranian regime asked Irish diplomats for help setting up business deals in the Republic with Eir , Vodafone and Three , internal correspondence shows. The Iranian company linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) requested the help of the State's Embassy in Tehran at the start of this year to line up mobile roaming agreements with several Irish networks. In a January 6th letter, seen by The Irish Times, the Mobile Company of Iran (MCI) said it wanted to expand its roaming coverage to Ireland, 'considering the friendly relations' between the two countries. The Mobile Company of Iran is one of the largest telecoms firms in the country and is owned by a company believed to be under the control of the IRGC. READ MORE The revolutionary guard is a military force, but also controls sections of many important economic industries in Iran. It oversees covert operations and plays a central role in aiding Middle East proxy militias, such as Hamas and Hizbullah. 'We would like to express our gratitude for the consistent efforts of the Embassy of Ireland in strengthening bilateral relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Ireland,' the letter from MCI to the Irish Embassy said. The Iranian company claimed it had international roaming deals in place with nearly 200 operators across 110 countries, where local providers extend mobile phone coverage to customers travelling from foreign countries. 'We kindly request the esteemed Embassy of Ireland to facilitate and support the establishment of international roaming agreements with active operators in Ireland (Three, Vodafone, and Eir),' the letter said. The Republic's ambassador to Iran, Laoise Moore, did not respond to the letter, a copy of which was released to The Irish Times following a Freedom of Information Act request. Vodafone previously had a roaming deal with MCI, but cut ties in the last year. The UK telecoms giant feared the agreement might breach rules prohibiting companies from doing business with the Iranian regime. Three Ireland did not respond to queries about whether it was involved in any discussions to sign a roaming deal with the Iranian company. An Eir spokeswoman said its roaming agreements were 'established in full compliance with existing international legal frameworks'. The company 'reviews publicly available sanctions lists prior to finalising any agreements', she said. Eir did not respond to specific questions about MCI. An internal assessment by the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, previously said there was reason to believe MCI was 'indirectly owned or controlled' by an entity that had been sanctioned by the bloc. The main shareholder of MCI is connected to an entity put on an EU sanctions blacklist in 2010, due to links to the IRGC. A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman said the IRGC was subject to economic sanctions, but the Mobile Company of Iran itself was not. Irish staff working in the Tehran Embassy were evacuated when fighting between Israel and Iran intensified, in the 12-day war that ended at the start of last week. The Embassy in Iran had only reopened last year, after having been closed in 2012 as part of a cost-cutting effort following the financial crash. The letter from MCI to Ms Moore was addressed to 'His excellency, ambassador of Ireland in the Islamic Republic of Iran'.
