PRESS RELEASE: FLAC Annual Report 2023

23 September 2024

Work of legal NGO FLAC demonstrates the powerful impact of access to justice, and unmet need for early legal information and advice

FLAC (Free Legal Advice Centres) has published its 2023 Annual Report, ‘Targeted Action, Transformative Outcomes’.

The report outlines the significant impact of each of FLAC’s initiatives to promote access to justice, including its public interest casework, early and preventive legal assistance services, targeted legal services, and policy and law reform work. Key headlines from 2023 include:

Early legal assistance was provided through our Legal Information & Referral Telephone Line, which answered 12,472 queries in 2023. However, FLAC only had the capacity to answer 21% of the over 50,000 calls received.
Volunteer lawyers held 3,273 consultations in our Free Legal Advice Clinics.
212 people received legal representation, mainly in the areas of housing/homelessness, equality/discrimination and social welfare law.

Commenting on the publication, Eilis Barry, FLAC’s Chief Executive, stated:

“FLAC’s work demonstrates the transformative impact that access to justice can have on people’s lives and our society.
FLAC’s Telephone Information and Referral Line responded to 12,472 queries during 2023, only a fraction of the calls it received, alongside 3,273 legal advice consultations with volunteer lawyers at Free Legal Advice Clinics. FLAC’s early legal information and advice services seek to prevent legal problems from arising and escalating; reducing the knock-on effects legal problems have on people’s lives. As a small NGO, FLAC cannot begin to meet the level of legal need, as evidenced by the over 50,000 calls received by our phoneline. This points to the need for a properly funded national telephone legal information line, as part of our system of public legal assistance.
This impact was also evident in FLAC’s two landmark Supreme Court cases during 2023, Heneghan and O’Meara. Those rulings are testament to the bravery of our clients and are a victory for democracy and the rule of law. The legislation currently being advanced to give effect to those decisions will expand the franchise in Seanad elections and broaden entitlement to social welfare payments for bereaved partners and families.

The casework arising from targeted Traveller, LGBTQI and Roma services also have a significant impact beyond the individual and that work shows that access to justice is vital for promoting equality and combatting poverty, social exclusion and discrimination.”

Early Legal Assistance (Information & Advice)

12,472 queries were answered by FLAC’s Telephone Information and Referral Line:

Family law remained the area in which FLAC receives the most queries (3,494 queries).
A record high of 2,425 employment law queries were recorded.
7% of all queries were from lay litigants (821 queries). Since the pandemic, the annual number of queries that FLAC receives from lay litigants has nearly doubled.
The phoneline received a record high number of queries about civil partnerships/co-habitation during 2023. During 2024, the outcome in O’Meara has led to a significant number of queries from co-habiting families regarding their social welfare entitlements.
The FLAC phoneline received an estimated 52,632 calls during opening hours in 2023, however only 21% of these calls could be answered.

3,273 legal advice consultations with volunteer lawyers at Free Legal Advice Clinics:

10% rise in employment law queries at clinics: Queries about bullying/harassment, non-payment of wages and maternity leave all more than doubled compared with 2022.
FLAC has nowhere to refer people with employment law problems because the Legal Aid Board cannot provide representation before the Workplace Relations Commission.

The Public Interest Law Alliance (PILA, a project of FLAC) facilitated 51 community and social justice organisations in accessing legal assistance through the Pro Bono Referral Scheme.

42,742 hours of pro bono work was undertaken by the 28 signatories to PILA’s Pro Bono Pledge.

Public Interest Cases: Two Landmark Supreme Court Judgments

In Heneghan, the Supreme Court decided that there is a “constitutional obligation” on the Oireachtas to expand the franchise in elections for Seanad university seats. Legislation to give effect to this decision was recently approved by Cabinet.

In O’Meara, the Supreme Court ruled that legislation which limits access to survivor’s pensions to families based on marriage or civil partnership is unconstitutional. People in the same position as the O’Meara family will now benefit from this outcome:

The Oireachtas Social Protection Committee recently endorsed FLAC’s recommendations for strengthening the legislation for giving effect to the judgment.
There are indications that the legislation may go further than the judgment strictly requires and extend entitlement to bereaved partners who do not have children (in addition to those who do).

Legal Representation & Targeted Legal Services

FLAC’s Independent Law Centre Continued to operate a Traveller Legal Service, LGBTQI Legal Clinic and Roma Legal Clinic.

212 people received legal representation, mainly in the areas of housing/homelessness, equality/discrimination and social welfare. This includes 91 complainants (or potential complainants) in discrimination cases under the equality legislation.
Two Roma women succeeded in a Circuit Court appeal ruling their expulsion from a Dunnes Stores supermarket was discriminatory. This is the first decision of a court in Ireland finding that a member of the Roma community had been discriminated against in a retail setting on the ground of race.
A homeless Traveller couple and their four young children were provided emergency accommodation after judicial review proceedings against a local authority settled in their favour.

Policy & Law Reform

In 2023, FLAC’s continued to make law reform recommendations informed by our experience of providing legal assistance:

FLAC raised serious concerns at proposals to overhaul homelessness and emergency accommodation law, which would remove a vital safety net for certain groups already most vulnerable to homelessness.
The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission adopted FLAC’s recommendations on ensuring access to justice for victims of discrimination in areas such as compensation, legal aid and accessible procedures. Those recommendations were also reflected in the new National Action Plan Against Racism.
FLAC made a significant contribution to the debate around potential constitutional reform in the areas of Equality, the Family and Care.

Róisín Fitzpatrick, FLAC Chairperson, commented:

“Throughout 2023, FLAC was very fortunate to be able to draw on the deep commitment to access to justice within the legal profession, civil society, law schools and student societies across the island of Ireland.
We are also immensely grateful to all of our funders – from Government Departments and statutory bodies to the Law Society, the Bar of Ireland, and philanthropic organisations such as the Community Foundation of Ireland, as well as our wide array of sustaining and supporting partners, individual law firms, practitioners and private individuals - for providing the crucial financial resources that allows FLAC to undertake its work.”

ENDS/

A copy of the report may be accessed here.

Notes to Editors:

FLAC (Free Legal Advice Centres) is an independent legal, equality and human rights organisation which exists to promote equal access to justice. Our vision is of a society where everyone can access fair and accountable mechanisms to assert and vindicate their rights.

FLAC:

Operates a legal information and referral telephone line.
Runs legal advice phone clinics where volunteer lawyers provide basic free legal advice.
Through the Public Interest Law Alliance (PILA), operates a Pro Bono Referral Scheme and engages the legal community and civil society in using the law to advance social change.
As an Independent Law Centre takes cases in the public interest and runs a Roma Legal Clinic, an LGBTQI+ Legal Clinic and Traveller Legal Service.
Campaigns for policy and law reform in areas of law that most affect disadvantaged and marginalised people and communities through research and advocacy.