Criminal Law, Civil Law and Defence (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026: Committee Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-24
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Maria McCormack (SF), Labour Panel

I wish to speak to amendment No. 17. I support the amendments tabled by Senators Harmon and Black. The Minister has listened to this at length in the committee and in so many debates. I understand that it is like Groundhog Day. He hears the same thing over and over again. The issue is not going away because women, men and everybody who needs to attend counselling feel so strongly about the damage it would do if we keep this practice in place. I urge the Minister to act. I know he has listened to Hazel Behan, who is a fantastic advocate, and Paula Doyle. They gave very powerful testimonies in the justice committee. I know he is seeking advice about ways around it without having a complete ban. When someone is starting out on their journey after having a horrific experience and they need to seek counselling, they do not know at that time whether those notes are going to be subjected to being brought through the courts and whether their perpetrator will have all of this very private information about them. We know this is preventing them from going for counselling at the time. We know it is leading to suicide. The Minister mentioned he was at the launch of the report by Women's Aid. I outlined in the Chamber earlier the 162 pages of the report and that the statistics are worse than we have ever had on the island of Ireland. It is a national crisis, not just in the Twenty-six Counties but all across Ireland. We know the number of cases reported. We also know that they are only the cases that are disclosed and the names of the women and children who ended up in the report. I plead with the Minister to say that the Upper House has meaningful debates and that today he is going to accept one of these amendments and do the right thing for the future of victims in Ireland. I hope he is going to find a way to ban the use of counselling notes for all of the people who have suffered. They will be in court because they have suffered as a result of the actions of someone else. I know we need to ensure there is a fair trial but there are ways around it. Someone's evidence and opinion of their evidence – because it is the counsellor's notes – should not be the main source for adjudication in a court case due to the amount of trauma it causes to the victim.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-06-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:06+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-24