Like everybody else in this House, I would have had loved to have plenty of time to speak to my amendment, which is No. 20. Out of respect to Deputy Gannon, who I presume is going to want to speak on this, I am going to be quite brief and to try to contain myself to two minutes. Amendment No. 20 very much reflects Deputy Kelly's amendment, which was also reflective of my thoughts on counselling notes right from the very outset. It also reflects the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre. It essentially is looking for a halfway house on what the Minister has proposed and what we would like to see. We have accepted that a total ban on counselling notes is not possible. We are asking, urging and pleading with the Minister to please reconsider. Let us have a look at it again. Let us have amendments brought to the Seanad where we will have an expressed presumption of non-disclosure. We cannot continue to put women through this again and again. The standard or bar must be very high. If we do not have this, we are just going to go around in circles again and again and we will be arguing, like lawyers do, on the head of a pin. We will find ways, if it is not express, clear and unambiguous, to work around this so it has to have an express presumption of non-disclosure. If not, all we have is a flood of applications coming into the courts which will clog the system and be costly to the system and ultimately, it will have no regard for the alleged victims. I would also like the Minister to consider what we consider to be the relevant tests for this. Necessity and probative values are important but most importantly, no judge should issue a disclosure order unless he or she believes that there is a real risk of an unfair trial without disclosure. I am rushing, if not galloping, through this because I am very conscious of time. I would like the Minister to take amendment No. 20 in its entirety. It also talks about a timeline after the book of evidence so that these applications happen at the beginning of the process, not nearly towards the end or a day or two before a trial begins. I would like the Minister to look at that. I would also like him to include the District Court when considering the courts that can have the applications.

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