Posthumous pardon for homosexuality convictions
Micheál Martin called for legislation or a pardon to address historic convictions for homosexuality, citing Ireland’s decriminalisation anniversary and examples from the UK and Northern Ireland. The Taoiseach said the Government was working on an all-party motion to recognise the wrongs, though legal complications make a blanket approach difficult.
As the House will be aware, this month marks the 25th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality by Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, a former Minister. As we all know, for far too many decades members of the LGBT community were wrongly discriminated against and many were convicted on charges of being gay. In the UK, Turing's law was passed to pardon all those who were convicted before decriminalisation was introduced. I am aware that the Northern Assembly passed a motion calling for a pardon. Will the Taoiseach indicate whether the Government intends to bring forth legislation to achieve a similar objective, namely, to pardon all those who were convicted? This dates back not to a latter era but to the mid-1970s, when up to 50 people were prosecuted.
Comment on this
I would be appreciative of the Government's response.
Comment on this
The 25th anniversary of decriminalisation will be marked on 24 June. We are working on a motion, which I hope all parties can agree, to recognise the wrongs that were done. There is a complication in that it is not always possible to distinguish one conviction from another. In some cases, the convictions involve minors and it is not necessarily possible in all cases to distinguish whether the offence involved a minor, a point that makes things a little trickier in Ireland for reasons Deputy Micheál Martin will understand. It is our intention to have an all-party motion in the spirit mentioned by the Deputy. Senator Nash is leading on this in the Seanad, along with Senator Buttimer and others. We also intend to have a Government event, yet to be organised or arranged, to mark decriminalisation 25 years ago. I would like to reach out to Máire Geoghegan-Quinn and ask her to take part in that because she was the line Minister who brought in the reform at the time and she deserves credit for it.