LGBT Disregard

Minister Commits to Introduce Legislation for Disregard Scheme

21st January 2026

In answer to a question from Ged Nash T.D. the Minister for Justice, Jim O’Callaghan TD., commits to bring forward provisions for a Disregard Scheme as committee-stage amendments to the Criminal and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, currently in front of the Oireachtas.

“I will bring forward an amendment, hopefully in March, to the Criminal Law and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, which will start in this House tomorrow, that will include amendments in respect of disregard legislation. I am very conscious that these men, and they are predominantly men, have waited a very long time for the exoneration to which they are entitled. I do not want to delay the process any further.“

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Disregard of Historic Offences for Consensual Sexual Activity Between Men Bill 2025

1st July 2025

This Bill was introduced to the Dáil by Deputy Aonghus O’Snodaigh of Sinn Féin on 1st July 2025. The Bill was co-sponsored by Labour, Social Democrats, the Green Party, People Before Profit and then independent TD Catherine Connolly.

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Draft Disregard Bill Developed

July 2023

Barristers Céile Varley and Cillian Bracken in association with Gay Project Cork, LGBT Disregard, Clifford Chance and A&L Goodbody, on a pro-bono basis, developed a Draft Bill to provide for a Disregard Scheme. This Draft Bill became the basis for the Bill introduced in July 2025.

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Seanad Motion – Disregard of Certain Criminal Records of Gay Men

17th May 2023

Senator Fintan Warfield of Sinn Féin, on IDAHOBIT, introduces a motion to the Seanad recognising the 40th anniversary of the March to Fairview Park and the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Sexual Liberation Movement, calls for “the immediate introduction of legislation and a scheme that would disregard the criminal records of gay men convicted of historical offences in Ireland”.

“We know that many of the laws criminalising homosexuality around the world have their origin in the archaic laws of the western colonial powers. We know that story.“

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Convictions for Certain Sexual Offences (Apology and Exoneration) Bill 2016

6th December 2016

Labour Party then Senator Ged Nash introduces this Bill on 6th December 2016 to provide a State apology and to exonerate those men convicted under the anti-gay laws.

“…an apology to and exoneration of persons convicted of consensual same-sex sexual acts, on the grounds that prosecutions for such offences were improperly discriminatory, contrary to human dignity and in breach of personal privacy and autonomy…”

The Bill is debated in the Seanad on 1st February 2017, and is the impetus for the State apology of 2018. The Bill itself falls on the dissolution of the Oireachtas in 2020.

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