Mr. Liam Herrick:

I thank the Deputy. In 2023, in its report for Ireland, GREVIO urged the authorities to eliminate the practice of disclosing confidential counselling notes in criminal proceedings without delay. It stated, in particular, authorities should remove without delay, including through legislative means, the obligations and practice to disclose victims' counselling or therapy notes as a part of court proceedings. That is a very clear statement and has been echoed since then by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. It is very clear from a human rights perspective that the status quo violates women's rights.

The onus is on the State to justify there is a countervailing balance of rights that requires modification of the position. The difficulty is we have a very constructive engagement with the Department of justice on this legislation but we do not have a clear articulation of what the other constitutional considerations are. In our view, it is very clear whereas the Supreme Court now seems to be suggesting counselling notes should only be disclosed in exceptional circumstances. How that then gets translated into guidelines, which would in reality mean it was the exception rather than the rule, I think is a challenge for this legislation and for the courts.