This article is from page 2 of the 2012-08-21 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
THE recession is hitting Clare couples hard with the a marked increase in the number or people getting divorced and separated in recent years. The number of divorces granted to couples in Clare grew by 40.8 per cent last year – the largest year-onyear increase since divorce was made legal in Ireland in 1996.
According to new figures for the county released by the Central Statistic Office (CSO) 69 divorces were granted to Clare couples last year with a further 66 application for di- vorce being made.
According to Paul Woulfe of the Ennis branch of the Citizens Information Service, these figures are the tip of the iceberg, with many Clare people seeking judicial separations – because they cannot afford the cost of an official divorce.
“There are many more people going down the route of a negotiated separation rather than going for a divorce. We get a lot of people coming into us because their marriages have broken up and the cannot afford the cost of a solicitor,” he told The Clare People.
“People come to us and they don’t realise that there are other option to having a full divorce, but there are. Of course there are many other couples who have been cohabiting for years and have a family – these people do not need a divorce at all and would not show up on the statistics.
“When a marriage or a relationship breaks up people have a lot of questions. A lot of them either don’t realise that you can get a separation agreement or a judicial separation and they will give you the same protections as a divorce. Really, the main difference for a divorce is that it allows the party’s involved to remarry – but a person can always get a judicial separation and then apply for a full divorce down the line at some stage.”
Meanwhile, just one annulment of marriage has been granted in Clare over the last five years. A total of five application of annulment have been made in the county since 2007, with only one being granted. An annulment is a declaration that a marriage was deemed never to be valid and is declared on rare occasions – such as when one of the people involved is found already to be legally married.
Anyone who wishes to contact the Clare Citizen’s Information Service for can call 0761 075260.