A bill has been introduced in the Dáil that would establish a process for the disregard of historic offences for consensual sexual activity between men.
The bill, brought to the house by Sinn Féin's Aengus Ó Snodaigh, is co-signed by TDs from across the opposition and will now be scheduled for debate.
Mr Ó Snodaigh said that gay men "continue to suffer as a result of convictions imposed when consensual sex between men was criminalised up to 1993".
He said that 309 proceedings began and there were 64 convictions in the ten years leading to decriminalisation alone.
"Despite an apology from the justice minister in 2018, no action has been taken by Government to put a process in place to disregard those convictions, as was recommended by a ministerial working group report in 2023."
Mr Ó Snodaigh said that the Disregard of Historic Offences for Consensual Sexual Activity Between Men Bill 2025 would establish an application process through the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission for men to have their historic convictions disregarded.
"As Dublin marked Pride this weekend, LGBT+ people faced slurry in Ballymena, bans in Budapest and some shootings in New York," he told the Dáil.
The passing of the bill would be statement of a "new society, a more open society", he said, as he asked the Government to adopt it "as quickly as possible".
"If you don’t do this, the hurt continues, the torture of people who have lived with these convictions or the consequences of these convictions continues."
The Sinn Féin TD said that, in parts of the country, the State "hounded out" men who were gay, were forced to emigrate and "were tortured day in day out in their workplaces".
Research showed that in Tullow, Co Carlow, there were 12 cases taken in one month in 1970, he added.
Mr Ó Snodaigh said it appears that there was an "overzealous" approach in some areas of the country and that research should be carried out on the convictions.
Labour TD Conor Sheehan said that "many men live with the trauma inflicted upon them by a society who told them they shouldn’t exist".
"Despite an apology in 2018, no action has been taken by Government to put a process in place to disregard these convictions," he told the Dáil.
The "shame and trauma" of these convictions drove many men to their graves, he said.
"Gay men were driven underground by this criminality. This is long overdue."
Mr Sheehan urged the Government to stop "dragging their heels" and support the bill.
Social Democrats TD Pádraig Rice said that it is over 30 years since homosexuality was decriminalised, but some men are "still living with the negative effect of decriminalisation".
"The persecution of hundreds 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", he said, adding that the threat of prosecution was used to "harass people in the community".
"It also had a huge impact on the provision of public services including HIV/AIDS prevention.
"The State must right the wrongs of the past. We are running out of time for these men," Mr Rice said.
Green Party leader Roderic O'Gorman said the language in the legislation linked consensual gay sex to bestiality and attempted to "dehumanise gay men".
"We are trying to undo the sins of the past ... but that approach to gay men is still being adopted. It’s being adopted in Europe. It’s the laws that were in Poland until the recent general election, the laws that are in place in Hungary right now," he said.
People Before Profit-Solidarity TD Paul Murphy told the Dáil it is "outrageous" that people are walking around today with historic convictions for the "so-called crime of being gay".
He said that a working group was set up to examine disregarding these convictions in 2021 and "nothing has still been done".
"Due course in this case is decades overdue ... this is not just a matter of righting a historic wrong
"It’s about sending a message at a time when LGBTQ rights are under attack in this country and globally that love is love and homosexuality is never a crime," Mr Murphy added.
A spokesperson for the Department of Justice said that the "Victorian-era laws that criminalised consensual sexual activity between men are now rightly recognised as a historical injustice".
They said that in 2023, then minister for justice Helen McEntee published the report of a multi-stakeholder working group which was established to examine the disregard of convictions for such offences.
The report contained 95 recommendations and covered matters like the range of offences that should be included in a scheme, the eligibility criteria, the procedures for applications, decisions and reviews and how to address cases where there may be insufficient information available to determine whether a given conviction meets the criteria.
The spokesperson said that these matters need to be "addressed carefully and appropriately" in the statutory scheme which the Government has committed to introducing.
"Minister [for Justice Jim] O'Callaghan is very conscious that those affected, and their families, are hopeful that this can be brought forward as early as possible," they said.
"Drafting of the necessary legislative proposals is being progressed in the department and the minister will bring proposals to Government for approval once that work is completed."
