Criminal Law and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026: Second Stage
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-22
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Ruairí Ó Murchú (SF), Louth

However, the issue here is the time for dealing with the individual issues. A number of people have spoken about how this Bill definitely lives up to its name of "miscellaneous". There are a number of issues we all need to do proper due diligence on.
The one an awful lot of us intend to speak to are the provisions on counselling notes. We are talking about survivors who have been through the worst acts of sexual violence and who, in a very vulnerable time in their lives, went through counselling as a means of dealing with the particular act or acts that were done to them. What we do not need is to continue with an invasion of what should be privacy. This should be a means for them to deal with an absolute horror that was done to them and not something that could possibly be brought into a court in any way, shape or form. I accept the Minister is moving some of the journey but we really need to make sure whatever has to be done is done. He has questions there on constitutionality but we have to find the means for a solution that abates the fears of those who are victims and survivors. Anything else is just unfair and a continuation of a failure and the wrongs that were done to people. Whatever about any other specific issue being dealt with in the Bill, we should ensure the sanctity of counselling for people, and women in particular, who have been through absolute abject horror.
It is fair to say nobody is going to have an issue with dealing with sex for rent and the disgusting practices we have seen grow out of the housing crisis. We all know we need to deal with the-----

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-22/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:32+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-22