Disclosure of counselling notes to be restricted
The Government has approved an amendment to a justice bill that the Minister for Justice says will create a form of statutory privilege for counselling notes in sexual-offence trials.
Minister Jim O’Callaghan said that he intended to amend the Criminal Law and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026 to introduce a presumption of non-disclosure for counselling notes.
A measure in the bill will require that a disclosure hearing takes place in all cases, meaning that counselling records would be released only where the judge decided that they contained evidence relevant to legal proceedings.
“The Attorney General has advised that a blanket ban on the disclosure of counselling records is not compatible with the Constitution, arising from any accused person’s right to a fair trial and the presumption of innocence,” the minister stated, adding that the amendments would restrict disclosure “as far as possible”.
‘Very small number of cases’
“The default position will be that counselling notes are not to be disclosed, save for the very small number of cases where disclosure is ordered by a judge and warranted in the interest of justice,” said the minister.
“This creates a form of statutory privilege, whereby counselling notes are not disclosable unless there is a risk of an unfair trial,” he added.
Other amendments will provide that the same protection regime is applied to other victims’ records containing sensitive personal data, such as medical records, child-protection records, and other such documents.
Historical convictions
The Government has also backed amendments to the bill that would enable the disregard of certain historical convictions relating to consensual same-sex activity. This will operate as an application-based scheme.
Further amendments approved include the addition of two further offences to the schedule to the Bail Act, providing a basis for the courts to refuse bail to a person charged with one of these offences where the court considers it necessary to prevent the person from committing a serious offence.
The offences to be added are:
- Intimidating a person or family of a person who is assisting a criminal investigation or who is acting as a witness or juror in criminal proceedings, and
- Failing to comply with notification requirements under the Sex Offenders Act 2001, or refusing or failing to enable fingerprints, palm prints, or photographs to be taken by An Garda Síochána in connection with such notification requirements.
The amendments will now be drafted and added to the bill as committee-stage amendments in the Dáil.