Cautious welcome for announcement on counselling notes

Frontline support organisations urge that new law addresses potential pitfalls and impact on survivors and therapists

Dublin Rape Crisis Centre and One in Four have cautiously welcomed the announcement that Minister Jim O’Callaghan has received approval from Cabinet to draft legislation that is intended to lead to greater protection of counselling notes.

However, the charities have outlined three areas they believe need to be addressed:

• the new legislation risks creating additional delays to trials and this could dissuade victims and survivors from pursuing justice;
• the legislation only protects counselling notes, so all other relevant personal records belonging to survivors can still be requested by the defence and are not covered;
• disclosure hearings can be very stressful for survivors and a victim-centred approach is needed.

Dublin Rape Crisis Centre and One in Four have said that none of these challenges are unsurmountable, but they do need to be fully mitigated if the legislation is to work as intended and lead to a more victim-centred criminal justice system. Meaningful progress will be judged by how well the law protects the privacy of victims and survivors, safeguards their access to support, and removes rather than reinforces the barriers they face in seeking justice.

Rachel Morrogh, CEO of Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, said: “We cautiously welcome the proposed legislation that is intended to limit defendants’ access to counselling notes in sexual offence trials. This is a first step towards strengthening the privacy rights of victims and survivors, but we are warning that safeguards against additional delays to trials are absolutely critical to underpin this legislation.

“We are concerned that the already small number of survivors who decide to report a sexual assault could be further reduced if lengthier delays dissuade them from seeking justice, or conversely, that those who want to see their abuser prosecuted before starting counselling may sacrifice their need for healing for longer.”

Deirdre Kenny, CEO of One In Four, said: “We welcome the intention of the legislation, however while counselling notes may be better protected through the proposed change, all other personal records will not fall under the new law. That will mean that survivors’ medical records for instance are not covered by the same safeguards.  

“We are asking  the Minister to consider including all these personal records in the new legislation and ensure there is a proportionate balance between the rights of the accused and the right to privacy of the victim.”

Dublin Rape Crisis Centre and One In Four have welcomed comments from the Minister that a disclosure hearing can be an extremely difficult experience for survivors and their therapists and that he is looking at ways to address this.

The charities believe that a possible part-solution could be contained in the Programme for Government commitment to ‘Establish specialised judges to handle domestic, sexual, and gender-based violence cases and invest in training for Gardaí and the DPP to better support victims’.

Dublin Rape Crisis Centre and One In Four have said that they are ready to participate at each stage of the development of the legislation to shape the future law.

/ENDS