Criminal Justice (International Cooperation on Electronic Evidence and Other Matters) Bill 2026: Committee and Remaining Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-07
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Chris Andrews (SF), Labour Panel

I move amendment No. 5:
In page 21, between lines 34 and 35, to insert the following:
“(9) Counselling records in relation to sexual offence trials shall not be processed under this Act.”.
Over recent months, the Oireachtas discussed the disclosure of counselling notes during sexual offence trials in a domestic context. This amendment gets to the core of concerns with this Bill. What if a court in another jurisdiction ordered the release of counselling notes held by an Irish service provider, such as one that provides data storage?
Is the Minister of State willing to stand over legal protection for survivors of domestic, sexual or gender-based violence that is less than what we would provide for people in Ireland? The Minister of State might say that the legal system here is different and has different safeguards, and that would be true, but is she willing to stand over whichever legal system in the EU may provide the least protection to survivors? That would, in effect, be Ireland playing a supporting role in the lowest common denominator of European justice systems.

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