I begin by thanking Sinn Féin and Deputy Ó Snodaigh for all of their work on this. I was delighted to cosign the Bill on behalf of the Social Democrats. It is now 33 years since homosexuality was decriminalised, but some men are still living with the negative impacts of criminalisation. Let us be clear. The prosecution and conviction of gay and bi men for consensual sex was a gross violation of their human rights and did immeasurable damage. These arrests and convictions destroyed lives. These laws also had a negative impact on those who were not convicted because the mere threat of prosecution was used to harass people in the community. The archaic laws also had a major impact on the provision of public services, including HIV and AIDS prevention. The State must right the wrongs of the past and we are running out of time for some of these men. The Government must act urgently to disregard these historical convictions and deliver true equality for LGBT people in Ireland. I welcome the remarks of the Minister that the Government will make progress on this because we have delayed far too long. As others have mentioned, there is a very long history when it comes to these laws in Ireland - almost 400 years of history. The Act of the Punishment of the Vice of Buggery Ireland 1634 was the first Act of an Irish parliament to punish the sexual act between adult men. Under that Act, sex between men was a capital offence punishable by death. This act was repealed by the Offences against the Person (Ireland) Act 1829, which retained the death penalty on conviction of buggery. This 1829 Act was subsequently repealed by the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, which removed the punishment of death upon conviction and instead classified buggery as an offence by penal servitude for life. It also introduced the offence of attempted buggery, which was punishable by a sentence of penal servitude of up to ten years. The Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 criminalised gross indecency between adult men with a maximum penalty of two years imprisonment with or without hard labour. The 1885 Act subsequently extended criminalisation to all sexual acts between men. The 1861 and 1885 offences dealing with buggery and gross indecency applied to both consensual and non-consensual acts. These laws remained in place following the foundation of this State and, in many ways, the new Irish Government doubled down on them. They remained in place until they were repealed by the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993. That is within most of our lifetimes. These leave a long legacy of structural and systemic homophobia. I shudder to think about the number of people who suffered under these laws over 400 years. In 2018, on the 25th anniversary of decriminalisation, the Taoiseach at the time, Leo Varadkar, issued an apology to the LGBT community on behalf of the State. Subsequently, a process was commenced to right the wrongs of the past. It is great to see we are moving forward in that regard with both this Bill and the Minister’s commitments. This disregard scheme should be open to anyone who believes the law was used unfairly to police, arrest, charge or convict them because of their sexual orientation. There are various accounts of how people were targeted by these laws. People were targeted by public order, vagrancy and lodging laws and other police operations. There may be the need for future work as to how the laws impacted on women and trans people, particularly in the context of their treatment through the family courts. We must not forget them. It is important we make this scheme as inclusive as possible for the wide breadth of the LGBTQI+ community. It is important that any effort made by the Government must ensure people are encouraged to participate in this scheme. There are a number of ways in which participation in the scheme can be encouraged. First, it must be acknowledged that many people will be hard to reach. It is important, therefore, that the scheme is promoted widely, is open and accessible and ensures confidentiality. A large number of LGBTQI+ people left Ireland to find safer places to live. Efforts should be made to promote the disregard scheme abroad, including in countries such as the UK, US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Irish embassies and consulates must promote the scheme once established. In addition, the Irish LGBTQI+ community abroad should be funded to promote the scheme within their own communities. At home, community groups across the island should be supported and funded to participate in the scheme and encourage local communities to take part. Any scheme set up by the Government will not be worth it unless we ensure participation and make it possible for people who suffered under these laws to meaningfully participate. It is important that this process is as accessible as possible and that the person appointed by the Minister undertakes a trauma-informed approach in line with international best practice. It is important that if there is any onus to provide information or documents, it rests with the State rather than the individual. If information or documents are not available, the person’s testimony should be accepted. Care must be taken not to retraumatise people during the disregard process. The disregard working group set out an extensive list of human rights and equality principles. In its next step, it should set out how the principles will be put into practice. For example, all staff working in the scheme should be trained in the areas of trauma and human rights. In addition, we should look abroad to see how this is best carried out in other countries. Most importantly, for the disregard to be effective, it must be placed within a broader context. We must consider the full impact that criminalisation has had on LGBTQI+ people, communities and wider societies. Many of our current LGBTQI+ community organisations across the country are under-funded. They struggle to support people and communities who were hurt by these anti-LGBT laws, policies and practices. Additional State funding must be provided to create and sustain services, particularly for older people. That level of funding and support is currently not in place. Parts of the country have no existing services. The State has failed to provide these services, and I have no doubt that criminalisation is one of the key reasons the State has never stepped in to support the community during those 70 years under criminalisation. These community organisations have fallen behind. They do not receive the same level of support that other community organisations receive. That wrong must be righted. We must provide additional supports. There are whole counties across the country that have no dedicated community services and supports. I ask TDs from those counties to start advocating for those services for the communities they represent. If truly restorative justice is to be adopted, it must address a wider set of policy issues. These include but are not limited to access to timely trans healthcare; banning conversion practices; robust hate crime prevention; improved sexual and mental health services; and commencement of the Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Act. It has sat on the books for far too long. The Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, needs to get her finger out and commence and introduce a second Act because people are waiting. LGBT families exist today who are waiting for their rights. We are waiting far too long and I am getting very frustrated with the delays. We also need to have a discussion about intersex rights, and the list goes on. We have raised these issues repeatedly and I frankly feel ignored by the Government when we raise them. I do so time and again. On the last occasion I spoke about this, it was with the Tánaiste. I reminded him that Ireland is ranked 15th in Europe in terms of LGBTQI+ human rights and policy protections by ILGA-Europe, an international body that ranks all the countries across Europe. We have been stuck in the mid leagues on LGBT rights for far too long. We are not making progress. I ask the Government to come out and set an ambitious goal in this regard. The Social Democrats have called on the Government to set a policy goal of being the best place in Europe to be LGBTQI+. It should set that as a goal and take the steps over the remaining years of this Government to achieve that. If the Government truly means what it has said around the disregard scheme and supporting the community, it will set that as a policy aim. It will put a policy in place and try to achieve that goal and move up through those rankings. I ask the Minister of State, in his concluding remarks, to make that commitment to the community tonight. The only way we are going to achieve true restorative justice is by tackling the issues faced by the community. Today, there are people who are left on waiting lists for trans healthcare and experience hate crimes out in the community. We have issues today. This is not just about the past; it is about the present and the future. I urge the Government to take action on it. Finally, I thank the campaigners on this - Karl Hayden, Kieran Rose, Brian Sheehan and Ciarán Brady - as well as the Gay Project in Cork which partnered with the legal firm, Clifford Chance. I also thanks its barristers, Ms Céile Varley and Mr. Ciaran Bracken, and the whole team of people involved in this campaign over a very long period of time. They put in a lot of work, effort, research and campaigning. They reached out to people and went through historical records. The amount of work that has gone into this has been phenomenal, and I commend them on doing all of that work. I know some of the same individuals are involved in many of the other campaigns I mentioned, and they continue to advocate for those as well. I thank everyone who paved the way for the Ireland we have today. I commend the campaigners and activists who continue to call on the State to do better because the State can do better.

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