When you need good accurate guidance
Anne O’Donovan, manager of the Citizens Information Centre (CIC) in Bantry, Co Cork, which offers people a wide range of advice and guidance on subjects as diverse as financial guidance to free legal advice.
I’d left it till the last minute — this was two years ago at the outset of the local property tax. I am notoriously inept at most forms of paperwork and have a bad habit of ignoring it for as long as possible.
In any event, if it hadn’t been for a neighbour of mine who keeps an eye on me, I’d have ended up paying the €100 to register instead of the €30 if I’d signed up that day.
After we’d caught up on the news, she reminded me that this was the last day for the cheaper fee.
So instead of finishing work for the day and putting my feet up, I dashed into Bantry. The Post Office took my fee and gave me a receipt but told me I’d have to go to Bantry Citizens Information Centre (CIC) for the form filling and registering side of things.
I just about made it down the hill and into Wolf Tone Square, where the CIC office is located as the office door was about to be locked.
I apologised and asked the very nice woman who was obviously looking forward to getting home if they could still help me. She said there was no problem and invited me in. I was shown into a private office, details were taken and the registration process was complete. It was my first visit to the CIC and I was totally impressed by their care and concern for someone who really shouldn’t have made their lives more difficult by leaving things until the last minute. There are a growing numbers of issues that concern us all of late and their sensible, impartial and face-to-face advice can be just what we need.
The origins of the modern citizens advice service can be traced back to a report on Public Assistance that was issued in the UK in 1924.
It recommended that advice centres should be set up to offer members of the public advice to help them with their problems. During the 1930s, plans were being drawn up for the possibility of war, so that the role the voluntary sector could be determined.
Plans for Citizens Aid Bureaux in the event of war were finalised in 1938.
In the UK, the first 200 offices were opened four days after the war started. And in Belfast, an air raid in 1941, which killed over a thousand people, saw the first bureaux opening there.
Offices were operated out of cafes, church halls, private houses and air raid shelters to ensure that everyone could access advice in what were challenging and dangerous times. Evacuations, pensions, allowances missing soldiers and prisoner of war lists were top priorities.
And although many of these offices closed after the war, it was painfully obvious that this unique and vital service was still very much needed, particularly when it came to housing. Many families had been bombed out of their homes and the post-war baby boom meant that more houses than ever were needed.
By 1974, the first Citizens Advice offices had opened in the Irish Republic.
In the 1980s, the UK drama series Miracles Take Longer depicted the type of cases that an average branch would have to deal with and was recognition of the important and varied role this organisation now played in the lives of many people.
I spoke to Anne O’Donovan, manager for the West Cork services, about her work.
>>“It’s true. Bantry is the main office. We have an office in Mallow as well. The CIC was set up in its present form in 2004, when we handled 2,000 queries. Last year there were 18,000, so there’s a real demand. We provide good quality independent advice in safe, secure surroundings and in a setting of total confidentiality. And, of course, our service is free. Our advice depends on a client’s needs, whether it’s empowering someone to put a case together for a claim, or to go to court with someone who needs that support.”
>>“Well, it’s really when someone experiences what might well be called major life-changing events, such as losing their job, or the death of a partner or spouse, or retirement. It’s not until then that most people have had to confront these issues or all the paperwork that may be associated. We provide a safe place for them to explore their options. People would come to us to clarify their position or to review appeals. And, of course, it’s usually a time of huge stress when people can be very anxious. The majority of queries wereceive are to do with social welfare.”
>>“They would need to have good research skills. All the information that we provide must be sourced and be 100% correct.
“We don’t give off-the-cuff advice and it’s delivered in a way that the client can understand since a lot of the paperwork they are faced with is not always user friendly. And, of course, the information that people need is constantly changing.
“Confidentiality is particularly important, especially in rural areas. So it’s very important that clients know that what happens in the CIC office stays in the CIC office. We conduct regular customer feedback surveys and I’m happy to say that we get very positive feedback.”
>>“We have two part-time staff members and 15 volunteers who are crucial. We couldn’t manage without them. It’s a great team and we do outreach and info talks as well as networking with other services.”
>>“I originally come from Kilcrohane and I’ve had a pretty varied work experience as a teacher, with Dublin’s Simon Community, with the homeless in London and with the Immigrant Advice Centre. I’ve been with CIC for ten years now and I absolutely love it. I’m very proud of the team and the work we do here.
“I think that the fact that we offer face-to-face reassurance for people at a time when so much contact is online is important for a lot of people. The main thing is that we offer a helping hand during a difficult period in peoples’ lives.
“We treat people with respect. Their concerns matter to us and I believe they often feel better for coming in. But we are not magicians though we do the very best that we can to help and de-mystify.”
