I very much appreciate the Minister's acknowledgement earlier in his opening contribution that the legislation I produced nine years ago was, in essence, the catalyst for the disregard propositions before us. For the bulk of the history of this State we made criminals of gay men because of who they were and who they loved. Many of those we did not criminalise received public order records, cautions and so on. They were imposed on them by an uncaring State at a very different time in our history. The Bill I presented in 2017 referred to the need for exonerations of men who had criminal records for having sexual relations that were no longer offences under the law. The first part of my Bill, the Minister will recall, called for a formal State apology for the wrongs this State and our society perpetrated by our laws and our actions against the LGBT+ community. I was very proud that, arising from that legislation, the then Government agreed to issue a formal State apology in both Houses of the Oireachtas in the summer of 2018, marking the 25th anniversary of decriminalisation. Tonight is a milestone. It is a landmark. I pay tribute to people like Kieran Rose, Karl Hayden, who is with us here this evening, Eddie McGuinness, Brian Sheehan and other members of the LGBT restorative justice campaign, as well as successive Ministers, including Mr. Charles Flanagan, Deputy McEntee, the current Minister and others, and their officials for the contribution they have made to getting us to this point. My only regret is that the time given to this Bill by the Government is not in any way in accordance with the significance of what we are doing here tonight. That is regrettable. I hope it is something the Minister reflects on. I also hope sufficient time will be provided in the Seanad for amendments on Committee and Report Stages to finesse and nuance the legislation and deal with the gaps. It is of such historic significance that I believe the Minister should give it due recognition and the time it deserves to be debated properly and nuanced and finessed.

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