Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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143. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality when in 2025 he plans to repeal section 19A of the Criminal Evidence Act 1992, which currently allows the private counselling and therapy records of victims of sexual abuse, including child victims, to be accessed by the accused given continued calls from the Council of Europe, victims, and numerous NGOs for this provision to be abolished; if legislative reform in this area is planned for 2025; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24795/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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I am committed to ensuring that legislative provisions balance the victim’s right to personal privacy and the accused person’s right to a fair trial. To support legislative change to achieve a greater balance, I secured Government approval for the drafting of the General Scheme of the Criminal Law and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2025 on the 6th May last.

The proposed legislation includes measures to ensure that counselling records are only released where the Court decides that they contain material relevant to legal proceedings.

To achieve this, it proposes to amend the existing legislation by requiring that a disclosure hearing takes place in all cases, removing the provision that allows for this to be waived.

The law in this area was substantially reformed in 2017 by the insertion of section 19A into the Criminal Evidence Act 1992, which created a process designed to strike this balance by allowing courts to assess the relevance of counselling records through a judicial process. The judge examines the counselling records and holds a disclosure hearing (at which the complainant is entitled to appear and be legally represented) to decide if there is relevant information which ought to be disclosed to the defence. In a very small number of cases, records may contain evidence of relevance to the trial. However, it appears that this provision has not operated in practice as intended.

I have listened to the views of victims and survivors who have made clear that they have felt compelled to agree to waive the disclosure hearing in order not to put a successful prosecution at risk or risk delaying their trial, and their records are routinely being released.

I am fully aware of the distress and re-victimisation that disclosure of personal records can have on survivors of sexual violence, including counselling records.

Therefore, the proposed legislation includes an amendment to ensure that the original intention of the legislation will apply, mandating courts to assess the relevance of any counselling records through a judicial process.

The General Scheme of the Bill has now been referred to Office of the Parliamentary Counsel for drafting. The General Scheme will also be referred to the Justice Committee for pre-legislative scrutiny and, when its report is received, work on finalising the Bill will be prioritised.