Criminal Law, Civil Law and Defence (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-18 ============================================================ Joanne Collins (SF), Agricultural Panel As has been said across the floor by many speakers, this very wide-ranging Bill covers a variety of matters across criminal law, civil law and defence. There are provisions within this that Sinn Féin does agree with and will support. There are also areas where we will be seeking significant improvements as we push through with this legislation. My principal concern today, however, relates to one of the most sensitive and important issues combined in this Bill, which is the disclosure of counselling and therapy records in sexual violence trials. For years, survivors of sexual violence have told us that one of the most daunting aspects of pursuing justice is the fear that their private counselling notes may be sought, examined and used in court proceedings. Many survivors access counselling in order to process trauma, rebuild their lives and begin a journey of recovery. They do so with the expectation of privacy and confidentiality. The prospect that deeply personal discussions with a therapist could later become the subject of legal scrutiny can be a significant deterrent to seeking support and, indeed, reporting sexual offences in the first place. That reality must be recognised when we are dealing with this legislation. We must ensure that victims and survivors are not placed in a position where they feel they must choose between accessing counselling and pursuing the justice they so deserve. The challenge, of course, is to strike an appropriate balance between protecting the privacy and dignity of complainants while safeguarding the constitutional right of an accused person to a fair trial. This is not an easy balance to achieve, but it is precisely because it is such a sensitive and complex issue that it deserves careful consideration and considered and comprehensive legislative scrutiny. The Minister said he has amendments coming forward on this, but we need to ensure that this legislation creates a strong presumption against the disclosure of counselling records unless the court is satisfied that disclosure is genuinely a necessity in the interest of justice. We need clear safeguards for this. We need robust protections and, above all, we need a system that recognises the unique vulnerability of victims of sexual violence. If we fail to get this right, the consequences could be fewer victims coming forward, fewer victims seeking support and a further erosion in confidence in the criminal justice system when it comes to these cases. That cannot be allowed to happen. A second concern relates to the manner in which the legislation has been assembled. It is another miscellaneous provisions Bill containing a broad range of unrelated matters, including significant amendments relating to the Defence Forces powers. There are elements to those defence provisions that many of us support, particularly measures aimed at strengthening maritime security and protecting our territorial waters. Sinn Féin has for a long time argued that successive Governments have neglected Ireland's maritime security capabilities and that greater investment and stronger legal powers are required. However, it is difficult to understand why such significant defence matters have been attached to a miscellaneous provisions justice Bill at such a late stage in the legislative process. Those provisions were not part of the original scrutiny process. They were not examined by the committee with responsibility for defence matters. They raise important questions regarding oversight, accountability and the role of the Defence Forces in aid of the civil power. Regardless of whether one would support or oppose these measures, they deserve proper scrutiny in their own right and I hope we get the opportunity on Committee Stage to go through those that have not been gone through yet. That broader issue speaks to a recurring problem in how legislation is brought before the House. I mean that in terms of the amount that is in one Bill and the different areas it covers, and being given enough time to actually get through these because sometimes Committee Stage can be cut short. I know the Minister tries to give as much time as possible to these, so when we have such a wide-ranging Bill, it would be nice to get a little bit of extra time. Complex and significant reforms are increasingly being bundled together in miscellaneous provisions Bills, limiting opportunities for detailed examination and reducing transparency in the legislation process. Good legislation requires time, engagement and scrutiny, like I already said. Nowhere is it more important than dealing with survivors of sexual violence. As the Bill progresses, Sinn Féin will continue to engage constructively. We will support measures that strengthen protections for victims and improve access to justice. We will also be seeking amendments, where necessary, particularly in relation to the counselling notes because survivors deserve legislation that reflects both the reality of the trauma and the need for justice. The ultimate objective must be a criminal justice system that protects victims, respects constitutional rights and encourages survivors to come forward with confidence. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-06-18/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:05+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-06-18