Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman for giving me this opportunity. My question is on the psychologists, psychiatrists and counsellors. The best example I can give is filicide, as in murder-suicide where someone's spouse takes their children and kills them as well as himself or herself. Is there any way of adjusting, through impact assessment studies or another solution, whereby if an individual, male or female, is attending a counsellor, psychiatrist or psychologist and there is a flag that the person may be a threat to family members the information could be disclosed to the person's partner, male or female? I have been approached on a number of occasions by spouses who have survived but have lost family members to suicide. They are extremely frustrated. They feel that if some of the information had been disclosed they could have had an opportunity to protect their children.