Jim O'Callaghan

Justice, home affairs and migration minister Jim O’Callaghan yesterday confirmed that the further restriction on the use of counselling notes will be introduced by way of amendment to the Criminal Law and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026.

The bill already includes provisions requiring a pre-trial disclosure hearing to take place in all such cases, changing the current situation where this can be waived.

The government says it has been advised by the attorney general that a complete ban on the disclosure of counselling records would be unconstitutional.

The proposed new regime closely matches that called for by Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, which also sought its own legal advice on the issue.

Mr O’Callaghan said: “The amendments I have secured Cabinet approval for will introduce a presumption of non-disclosure in respect of counselling notes.

“This means 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.

“This creates a form of statutory privilege whereby counselling notes are not disclosable unless there is a risk of an unfair trial.”

He said the same protections would be applied to other records containing sensitive personal data, such as medical records, child protection records and other such documents.

“The bill amends the current statutory framework to ensure that judicial oversight governs the disclosure of any counselling records, in order to ensure adequate judicial oversight,” the minister said.

“These further amendments will restrict the disclosure of counselling records as far as possible and will provide increased protections and greater reassurance to complainants in relation to the use of personal records in sexual offences trials.”

Other amendments set to be introduced to the bill at committee stage relate to further restrictions to the granting of bail and a disregard scheme for historic convictions for consensual same-sex activity.