Ms Caroline Counihan:

I just think that some things have got to be sacred. Surely this is a situation where, in the absence of clear evidence of utter bad faith on my part or somebody in my role, legal professional privilege should apply. I should be trusted as a professional. I absolutely do not lead anybody. I listen to them, try my best to answer their questions about the procedure and I try to say where there are options. Amazingly enough, sometimes there are options and I say "this is what you could suggest", "this is something that you must bring back to the prosecutor" or "this is something you could talk to the garda on the case about as only they will know the answer". I do not have detailed knowledge of the case. As strange as it may sound, I really do not get into what happened, the case or the evidence. It is really much more about the framework and how it all works, and to try to address people's concerns. Most of the time it is a fear like "he will do something to me before it ever gets to court and what can I do about that?", and then it is the terror of giving evidence in court. They are two things that I hear an awful lot about. Sorry, but I probably sound like I am teaching my grandmother to suck eggs.