The Irish government has approved a new scheme that would disregard the convictions of men who were criminalised for consensual same-sex sexual activity prior to decriminalisation in 1993.

Yesterday, February 5, Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan said he was “extremely pleased” that the government had agreed to his proposals to set up a statutory disregard scheme. This process, the Minister said, will “address meaningfully some of the harm caused to affected gay men, as well as their families and friends, during the period of criminalisation”.

As The Journal reports, the scheme will go before the Oireachtas in March. As many of the men who were convicted have since died, Minister O’Callaghan has said their family members will be able to apply on their behalf to have their convictions disregarded.

According to the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, at least 941 men were convicted of so-called “homosexual acts” under the law, though the true figure may exceed 2,000.

Kieran Rose, an activist with the LGBT+ Restorative Justice Campaign, has welcomed the government’s approval of the scheme to disregard historic convictions for same-sex activity.

“The Government approval of a Disregard Scheme represents a landmark moment in the State’s long and unfinished process of addressing the profound injustices inflicted on gay men through the criminalisation of homosexuality,” Rose said.

Another LGBT+ Restorative Justice campaigner, Karl Hayden, spoke about the damage caused by Ireland’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws, which criminalised consensual same-sex acts.

“These anti-gay laws were not symbolic or dormant,” he said. “They were actively used as instruments of surveillance, punishment, and social control. Men prosecuted and convicted under them faced imprisonment, public disgrace, loss of employment, exclusion from family and community life, and lifelong stigma.

“Many lived in fear of exposure or blackmail. Some never recovered from the trauma of State-sanctioned punishment. Others died before the State acknowledged that what was done to them was wrong. Criminalisation shaped societal attitudes towards LGBTQ+ people more broadly, embedding stigma, legitimising discrimination, and enforcing silence and shame.”

Labour LGBTQ+ has also welcomed government approval of the scheme. “This decision marks a historic leap forward in addressing one of the most profound injustices experienced by LGBTQ+ people in Ireland,” the group said in a statement.

They continued: “For decades, men were criminalised simply for who they loved or who they were. These convictions, rooted in outdated laws introduced under British rule then continued under the newly independent Irish State, inflicted deep and enduring harm on individuals and the wider LGBTQ+ community. It is fitting, if long overdue, that the State now moves to formally correct this wrong through legislation that will ensure these convictions are treated as if they had never occurred.”