Criminal Law, Civil Law and Defence (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026: Report and Final Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-02
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Maria McCormack (SF), Labour Panel

I listened back to the Minister's comments on counselling notes in last week's debate, and I listened again to the lived experiences of people who have given their testimonies. They have been read out throughout these debates in the Houses and in committee. Banning the disclosure of counselling notes is about recognising that they are hearsay evidence and rebalancing our justice system so that there is not only a fair trial but a fair justice system for victims and survivors. I welcome the victims and survivors to the Gallery today. We have heard of the additional trauma caused by the disclosure of counselling notes, including from women who were asked about personal family matters totally unrelated to the case by lawyers for the defence. It was information they could only have obtained from the counselling notes. This is what I would like to focus on.
We have heard how the disclosure of counselling notes deters people from getting the counselling they need when they need it. What we have not heard, but what I have asked for, is evidence or examples of where counselling notes secured by the defence have materially impacted on court cases. I will read part of a letter I received from Paula Doyle, who is in the Chamber with us. She is a campaigner for a ban on the use of counselling notes:
My counselling was supposed to be my place where I could begin to heal my broken life, to process the trauma and, in my case, save my life. My four and a half years of sessions before trial were filled with flashbacks, triggers, suicidal thoughts and a time in my life where my nervous system was on constant high alert. During the investigation, it was found that the person who had been stalking me for three and a half years previously ended up being my rapist. It took so much of me to report this crime and I expected that the legal process might be hard, but cross-examination during the trial is horrendous. Instead, my counselling notes were taken and used in court. My healing journey and survival responses were presented in court by the defence as inconsistencies, unreliabilities and that I was unstable. The notes that were used were of no reference to the actual rape but were fragments of my new, broken existence that would be used by the defence to discredit me on the stand as a woman, a partner and a mother. I was asked by the defence what type of a mother I was. After replying that I felt I was a good mother to my five children, the defence barrister, before turning to the jury, said, "But you can't hug your children."
This was not the only incidence of the use of my counselling notes in court. See the violence didn't end with the assault. It continued when my counselling notes were used in the courtroom, ripped apart, stripped bare and I was mentally violated again, but this time by our Irish justice system. Not a lot has changed over the past decade for victims. The defence are playing clever now as they can't ask what the victim was wearing or his or her sexual history, so they now prowl through a victim's counselling notes for an assumption that by examining these her background, her behaviour, her traumatised and hijacked memory, that it will help them [prove] that she somehow implied consent. This is not just unfair. It is absolutely devastating, it is disgusting, it is extremely dangerous and it is psychological harm.
Those were words from Paula Doyle sent to all of us Members. The current updated provisions from the Minister do not introduce the statutory presumption of non-disclosure that was publicly promised. Instead, they create a two-stage gatekeeping test, which is a different and weaker legal mechanism. A presumption would have set the mandatory starting point and shifted the burden of proof, while a gatekeeping test merely filters the applications. Without an express presumption, the courts are not required to begin from a position of presumptive non-disclosure, which is what the Minister indicated he would deliver. I know Rape Crisis Ireland has engaged with the Minister on this matter and was of the view a commitment had been made that disclosure would only occur where there was a real risk of an unfair trial. This has not happened. Instead, we have the introduction of provisions in relation to the interest of justice. These need to be dropped. Amendment No. 34, tabled by Sinn Féin, would ban the disclosure of counselling notes. This is what is needed and what victims demand. This is the Minister's final opportunity to introduce a ban on counselling notes and protect future victims. I urge the Minister to please accept amendment No. 34.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-07-02/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:09+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-02