Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I commend Senator van Turnhout on introducing a very necessary amendment. Unless there is some technical or wording reason for not accepting the amendment, I believe the Minister should accept it. I have been contacted by Rape Crisis Network Ireland - not the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre - a network of rape crisis centres throughout the country. It has deep concerns about the issue of counselling notes being made available and the pressure being brought by the Director of Public Prosecutions and others to make these notes available to form part of a book of evidence. If a victim felt for one minute that, having entered a programme with a counsellor from any rape crisis centre, the notes might end up as part of a book of evidence, that person might never seek the service of a rape crisis centre, which would be a retrograde step. It would choke these organisations, many of which are operating on a shoestring and are doing profoundly important work and giving crucial support to people who need it at a desperately vulnerable time in their lives having become victims of unspeakable crimes.

They feel constrained because the notes of a conversation might end up as part of a book of evidence. The counsellors are also constrained for the same reason. While Senator van Turnhout would have considerably more knowledge of the issue than I have, from my lengthy discussions with a counsellor over a number of hours on a number of different occasions, I was so concerned about it that I requested the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality to do a module on the area of sexual violence and what protocols are in place to deal with counsellors and other professionals involved. It is very serious and I would be interested in hearing the Minister's response on the subject.