James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want the acknowledge the presence of Senator Norris, who is here today, despite his ill health, for all of his fellow campaigners and organisers. I acknowledge the hard work and dedicated advocacy that they put in over many years towards the fight for equality. I wish Senator Norris strength and a speedy recovery from his illness. I acknowledge his political career, which has been dedicated - to use his own words here today - to the greater happiness of others.

I also join in condemning attacks on anybody in the LGBT community or any hate motivated attacks. Such attacks deserve total condemnation.

I thank Sinn Féin for tabling this motion for a very important scheme related to the disregard of criminal convictions for consensual activity between men, the development of which has been a focus for this Government. While the motion coincides with and recognises a number of important anniversaries that fall this year, it relates to a matter which the Government and my Department have already been progressing for some time and which will come to conclusion in the very near future.

At the outset, I acknowledge the relentless march of progress instigated by civil society that has been undertaken by many groups highlighted in the motion and others to make Ireland the more open and accepting society it is today. It is widely acknowledged that the previous offences on the Statute Book of this State, which criminalise consensual sexual activity between men, are considered to have been particularly discriminatory, contrary to human dignity and an infringement of the right to privacy and self-autonomy. Those laws caused multiple harms to those directly and indirectly affected, namely men who engaged in consensual same-sex activities, and to their families and friends. Furthermore, the law significantly hindered progress towards equality for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex community.

Thankfully, those discriminatory laws were abolished by the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993, introduced by the then Minister for Justice Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, after 130 years of their being on the Statute Book since the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 was first introduced. The damage caused by these laws has had a clearly negative impact on the lives of too many people. Criminalisation was an affront to human dignity and a significant historic injustice. While it is not possible to undo the hurt inflicted on people who were discriminated against simply for being themselves, the sincere wish is that we can contribute to the healing process.

The programme for Government contains a commitment to putting in place a scheme to disregard the convictions of people convicted of consensual same-sex activity prior to decriminalisation. Our working group was established and met 11 times between June 2021 and May 2023 and discussed this matter in considerable detail. The group conducted extensive research on disregard schemes in multiple common law jurisdictions, such as Australia, Canada, England, Wales, Scotland, and New Zealand, to inform a best practice approach to developing recommendations in an Irish context. It received advice from the Office of the Attorney General on a number of key issues, particularly regarding the determination of offences and qualifying standard. It received input from the Department of Defence on relevant convictions under military law to help inform a recommendation on offences that would be included in the disregard scheme. It identified the availability and quality of records held by An Garda Síochána and other State agencies, included through the commissioning of a legal historian. The group held a public consultation to receive submissions on a number of key issues from affected persons and representative groups to inform its final recommendations, and sought to address a number of complex legal and records-related issues in order to make recommendations with the stated goal of designing a disregard scheme that is accessible and as effective as possible in law.

The final meeting of the working group occurred on 5 May. I understand from my officials that as all recommendations are now agreed, a report is currently being finalised. Once the final report and recommendations of the working group have been published, my Department will progress to the legislative drafting process and the introduction of a scheme to disregard relevant criminal convictions. The Government's ultimate desire is that the scheme will be as effective and as accessible as possible in order that we can exonerate those impacted by the outdated laws to which I refer and address some of the lingering harms of the past. In doing so, we continue to acknowledge the brave advocacy of those groups and individuals, dating back 50 years and more, who fought for criminal and constitutional reform in Ireland.

The impending disregard scheme will be another important step towards addressing the immeasurable individual harm that has been done to generations of gay and bisexual men and to their loved ones, a harm that is still felt today, while demonstrating once more that we are willing to revisit and confront uncomfortable aspects of our past. The Government is committed to implementing the disregard scheme, and important progress is outlined in the Justice Plan 2023. While I do not have a specific timeline at this point, I can assure the House that it is a priority for the Minister, Deputy McEntee. The Government welcomes the support of Sinn Féin for this work and thanks the party for the motion tabled here today.