I want to put on record that the way in which the Minister has handled this entire piece of legislation is in no way satisfactory, not even talking about the guillotine that is in place later on this evening. This is the second motion to instruct the committee we have had to the House where the Minister has added new and completely unrelated matters to a Bill that already covers a range of unrelated matters. Even the Title of the Bill has changed since we discussed it on Second Stage. Effectively what that means, and where the concern is, is there are matters within this Bill that have not been and will not be properly scrutinised by the Dáil, not as part of the pre-legislative scrutiny process and not as part of the justice committee's examination of the Bill. I appeal to the Minister to not have a repeat of this situation, to stop the guillotine and the rushing, and to actually allow proper Dáil scrutiny of legislation. This debate focuses on the inclusion of provisions for the disregard of historical convictions for homosexual activity and the measures to give effect to amendments to the Rome statute, clarifying Ireland's obligation to co-operate with the International Criminal Court. I doubt if there will be an opposition voice against either. Therefore, it is regrettable that it has been brought in a manner which is itself, in my view, controversial. On the issue of disregard of certain historical convictions, I will take this opportunity to commend my party colleague Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh, along with those from across the Opposition benches who have brought forward a Bill to provide for this. It would absolutely have made more sense for the Minister to work with his Opposition colleagues in facilitating that Bill rather than introducing these provisions at this late stage in its Dáil consideration. Aside from that, this issue should have been dealt with decades ago. Although homosexuality between consenting men was eventually decriminalised in 1993, there was little acknowledgement of the profound harm inflicted on generations of men who were convicted in the years prior to this. In the ten years leading up to the decriminalisation, the State had commenced criminal proceedings in 309 cases that resulted in 94 convictions. It is amazing that in our lifetime people were being convicted for their sexuality. It has to be said that for decades, gay men in Ireland lived under an repressive system that criminalised their identities and fostered widespread fear, isolation and persecution. We know that many gay Irish men felt they had no choice but to emigrate, and others felt they had no choice but to keep their sexual orientation a secret, sometimes for their whole life. At moments like this, we have to acknowledge what must have been profound hardship for people who were forced to live a lie their entire life. Criminalisation had a real and devastating consequence for many people. During the AIDS crisis we know there was a stigma attached to homosexuality that meant little public support and often open hostility. In June 2018, the Government issued a formal apology, acknowledging that laws criminalising homosexuality were discriminatory, violated human dignity and caused significant harm to those affected. We have moved on. This is a welcome move but it should have happened long ago. There are different ways it should have been brought forward.
Sentiment score: -0.16
And another Department.
Sentiment score: 0.00
He has no sympathy at all.
Sentiment score: 0.08
The Minister is in for the long haul.
Sentiment score: 0.00
Bad ones go quicker.
Sentiment score: -0.54
The Minister did not need to guillotine it.
Sentiment score: 0.00