Gerald Nash (Labour) | Oireachtas source

This is a day when we can be proud of our parliamentary democracy and I hope it is a day that will live long in the memory. It is a day too that I hope will mark another important turning point in our society and in our politics. It is an important reckoning with our recent history. This is a long overdue and sincerely extended apology from our national Parliament and from those who represent the people of this country. We extend the apology to gay men for the wrongs done to them throughout the history of this State. It is an apology not just to gay men but to the LGBTI community. The chilling effect of the cruel and inhumane laws we had on our Statute Book for far too long created a culture of prosecution and, indeed, persecution. Gay and lesbian citizens of this Republic were tormented, discriminated against and stigmatised for just being who they were. They were made criminals for the offence of having a sex life. These laws gave expression to social and cultural norms that called into serious doubt our ability and right to call this State a Republic. We have made significant progress in making this Republic, this State, a better and much more tolerant society. We have some way to go before we can truly conclude that journey is complete.I believe the next step is provided for in the legislation that my Labour Party colleagues and I proposed in early 2017, the Convictions for Certain Sexual Offences (Apology and Exoneration) Bill. I believe we need to fully engage in the exoneration element if we are to bring this process to its logical conclusion. We need to work together to identify a legally sound and robust way to allow us to find a mechanism to disregard and set aside convictions carried by men for offences that have been repealed. I will continue to work with Government to allow that to happen - I gave the Minister my commitment on that.

I want to see this cathartic day prompt a debate on how we treat older lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex citizens in this country. Support services and recognition of their life experiences are needed and I hope that it will be reflected in a new LGBTI strategy. I understand this strategy is being brought to a conclusion shortly by Government.

Mention is frequently made in the context of this debate around the requirement for pardons to be introduced for men who are carrying convictions for offences that no longer exist. I want to see a broader exoneration. To state that a pardon is required suggests that those acts between two consenting adults were wrong. They were not wrong then and they are not wrong now. This is not simply semantics. It is a real difference. It was not wrong then and it is not wrong now. This is something we need to work towards in a unified fashion by introducing a safe legally robust system of disregards for convictions.

I wish to express my gratitude to the Ministers, including the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Zappone, and specifically the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Flanagan, and the Minister of State at the Department of Justice and Equality, Deputy Stanton. I thank their political staff and departmental officials for the support they have provided to me in this process during the past 18 months. I sincerely thank my colleagues, Karl Hayden and Aoife Leahy, co-chairs of the Labour Party LGBT group. It was the first LGBT group established by any political party in the country fully 15 years ago. I thank them for their unwavering support, advice and encouragement during the past 18 months or so. I am proud of the pioneering and often brave work undertaken individually by members of my party and by my party collectively for many decades. That work included the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1993, something we insisted upon as a price of our participation in government from 1992 to 1997. We have done significant work since then and we continue to work in this area. Nowhere has our campaigning work been more evident than in the way in which we have worked to try to transform and vindicate the rights of LGBTI citizens in this country. That work is not complete. It continues and I am keen to work with everyone within and outside this Chamber to make this country a better, more tolerant and more respectful republic for everyone.