The Legal Aid Board has said 2012 was a significantly challenging year in its annual report.
The report shows that the Legal Aid Board received 16,870 applications for civil legal aid and advice in 2012, down 10 per cent on the previous year.
Demand for its overall services had increased by 9 per cent in 2011 and 21 per cent the previous year.
In total, the Board’s law centres processed 17,652 cases in 2012 which was a slight reduction on 2011, while 5,082 cases were referred out to private practitioners.
The Refugee Legal Service, which provides legal services to asylum seekers, experienced a drop of 26 per cent in new clients in 2012 to 725. This was consistent with the falling number of asylum applications in the State in recent years.
Its annual report for 2012 released today shows that demand was extremely high, at a time when resources were constrained.
Commenting on the report, chairwoman of the Legal Aid Board Muriel Walls said the main feature of the board’s operating environment in the past year has been an extremely strong demand for civil legal aid services.
Ms Wall said that there were considerable difficulties in meeting this increased demand with reduced resources, a further expansion in the remit of the Board with a second criminal legal aid ad-hoc scheme transferring and the first full year of the Family Mediation Service within the Legal Aid Board.
Ms Walls added that the Board has sought to respond to the difficulties faced by continuing to provide a priority service in respect of certain areas such as domestic violence, child abduction and child care cases which account for 15 per cent of all applications.
The Board said the delay in the publication of the report was due to staffing issues in the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General.