Ireland's Eye: What's going on in the old sod

THE crippling collapse of the economy is putting huge additional pressures on Kerry families, and the recession is leading to a sharp increase in marriage breakups and difficulties meeting maintenance payments.

There has been a huge surge in demand for services offered by the Legal Aid Board center in Tralee, where an 11% rise in demand in 2010 was confirmed with a total of 88 applicants still awaiting an appointment at the end of the year.

Eileen Bowden, the board’s director of corporate services, confirmed that the Tralee center dealt with a total of 530 applicants in 2009, and up to November 2010 it had already dealt with a total of 550 applications.

"We are finding that there is more pressure. Because of the recession more people are qualifying for the service, and people are losing their jobs in the current economic climate," she stated.

"We would also see in Tralee that there has been an increase in people looking for advice in relation to debt cases. With debt we look at each case on an individual basis. We can give advice but we cannot always take on a case," she added.

Over the last 12 months the Legal Aid Board solicitors in Tralee have also observed a major increase in the number of people seeking help in relating to child care and child abduction cases.
- The Kingdom

Construction collapse

THE collapse in the construction sector has been starkly revealed in figures published by Mayo county manager Peter Hynes in his annual report.

Planning applications in the county fell last year to levels not seen since 1994, and are now less than a third of what they were during the heady days of the Celtic Tiger.

Mayo County Council had received a total of 1,172 applications up to the end of November 2010, a decline of 7.5% on the same period in 2009.

It now appears almost certain that 2010 will have been the worst year for construction in Mayo since 1994 when a total of 1,376 planning applications were lodged.

Last year’s figure is in sharp contrast to the mid-2000 numbers when more than 3,500 applications were lodged five years in a row, from 2002 to 2006.

Indeed, the county’s building boom reached its peak in 2006 when 3,954 applications were submitted to Mayo Co Council’s planning office.

Although the peak was reached in 2006, the building boom continued at a furious pace in 2007 when 3,411 applications were submitted.

The steep decline that commenced in 2008 (2,193 applications) now looks like it will bring the construction industry in Mayo back to levels not seen since the early 1990s.

Hynes notes in his report that there has been a virtual collapse in the area of housing developments comprising more than one house, with a mere 22 applications up to the end of October 2010. There has also been a substantial increase in the number of applicants seeking extensions of existing planning permits.

“This is also a consequence of the downturn in the economy as applicants require more time to secure finance to commence and complete developments,” says Hynes.
- Western People

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