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PLANS TO DISREGARD convictions relating to consensual sex between men which occurred before the offences of buggery and gross indecency were decriminalised in 1993 have raised “a range of complex issues”, a new report has revealed.
A progress report by a working group established by the Minister for Justice Helen McEntee in March 2021 to develop a scheme to disregard such convictions has admitted it has proven difficult to estimate how many people might be eligible to have their past offences disregarded.
It pointed out that the Garda PULSE system holds no details of any relevant convictions as it only came into operation five years after the decriminalisation of the offences in 1993.
The group also acknowledged that older “legacy records” held by gardaí were unlikely to contain sufficient detail to determine if a conviction was liable for the proposed scheme.
It revealed that there are also over one million paper records about convictions held by the Garda National Vetting Bureau in Thurles, Co Tipperary.
However, Garda said many investigation files relating to such incidents may no longer exist as they could have been lost or disposed of during the intervening years.
“As a result of these findings, An Garda Síochána cannot provide an advance guarantee that it will be possible to locate specific historic convictions”, the group said.
It noted a confidential email system established by An Garda Síochána for individuals to seek the expungement of their conviction did not receive a single response.
The progress report said the working group had to consider if and how it might be possible to grant a disregard in the absence of State records of the conviction or a lack of sufficient detail in any existing records.
However, it said there was an onus on the State to maintain, preserve and produce records.
The group also stressed that an application to have a conviction disregarded should not be refused on the grounds that records were unavailable.
The group has recommended that a legal historian should be appointed to investigate public records to ascertain what documentation may be available to support an application.
It is still under consideration whether an affidavit or sworn statement would suffice to have a conviction disregarded.
The group said it would consider a recommendation that the Minister for Justice should issue a letter of apology to affected individuals “as a means of further acknowledging the harm and impact of such criminalising laws.”
The group has recommended that an application to disregard a conviction can be made on behalf of any relevant individual who has died during the intervening period as well as anyone who moved abroad and who are no longer resident in Ireland.
To be considered eligible to have a conviction disregarded, the group has proposed that the act must have been consensual, did not involve a minor and that no person engaged in the activity was in a position of authority over the other party.
The group said laws repealed by the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993 which included buggery are now considered to have been “particularly discriminatory, contrary to human dignity and an infringement of the right to privacy and self-autonomy.”
It acknowledged that such laws had caused multiple harms to men who engaged in consensual same-sex activities as well as their families and friends.
The group noted that the criminalisation of same-sex sexual activity between men in Ireland had impacted on the availability, accessibility and uptake of information, testing and treatment services for HIV prevention.
It has also recommended that the wording of the original intention to “expunge” such convictions should be changed in favour of to “disregard” them as it claimed entirely removing or destroying records of unjust offences would not be appropriate and would do away with evidence of injustice and frustrate the work of researchers and historians in the future.
Plans to expunge the criminal records of individuals who had been convicted of such offences were first announced on the 25th anniversary of the decriminalisation of the offences where the acts involved would now be lawful.
The working group, which includes representatives of the LGBTI community, is expected to submit a final report about a proposed scheme to McEntee by the end of September.
McEntee said a public consultation about the scheme would be launched shortly to allow people to have input based on their own experiences.
“I am very conscious that nearly 30 years later the damage that was caused by these laws continues to impact negatively on too many people’s lives,” the Minister remarked.
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At least we know how he feels about free speech, laughable
Starting to retract what he said or trying to re-spin what he said?
Yep, he’s a standard FF politician!
unbelievable that a member of the senate should come out with rubbish like this. if anything, HE is the one who is ‘subverting’: subverting the right of people to express themselves freely in the forums of their choice. a real killer to think that we are paying this man’s wages and then he makes worthless pronouncements like this (the kind of thing that would be dismissed instantly or laughed off if he was to make it here for example, yet because they are made in the senate they are taken serioulsy. same goes for norris (senator and tv critic) and his comments yesterday. if they are trying to highlight the uselessness of the senate they are doing a good job!
Cant take the heat?
He is a Gobsh1te.
Sorry, That was written out of context.
The quote in the second paragraph shows he wasn’t speaking out of context. Maybe he didn’t mean to phrase it that way but it shows a big contempt for social media and free expression online. Boooo.
It’s a contempt for the right of people to set their own agenda,where the likes of Mark cannot call up editors or journalists etc etc to spin an article. In the modern era, it is harder to hide his parties activities in the dark corridors and car parks of hotels.
He could not care less if it is online or offline. This is a man whose father had to resign as part of a scandal in the Haughey years over the bugging of journalists in 1983.
When you grow up in that kind of house how can one expect to know right from wrong. He had no chance, the poor kid. At least he connections were able to get him a 100k job in the Seanad.
Give me subversion of the State any day over outright FF treason of the State.
His rambling attack on free speech was probably down to stress caused by the fact that his family are caught up in a court case concerning development land and property. This is a man who was tipped to be a future leader of FF by the Sindo. Crikey, if he can’t keep his cool around the stress of court cases then he is hardly fit to be a cllr for that party.
You may be familiar with his daddy, Ray McSharry. He had to resign from the Govt. in the 1982 after being caught in possession of Gardaí bugging devices he was using to record his cabinet colleagues. He said he got them from the then Justice Minister Seán Doherty who was bugging journalists homes and phones and shown to be interfering with criminal cases for personal and political gain.
Apart from having a poor grounding in ethics and public service from the family side, McSharry has proven that he does not have the intellectual horsepower to be a public rep. Time for him to have his daddy arrange a new job for him.
Bugger!
“Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?… Has it ever occurred to your, Winston, that by the year 2050, at the very latest, not a single human being will be alive who could understand such a conversation as we are having now?… The whole climate of thought will be different. In fact, there will be no thought, as we understand it now. Orthodoxy means not thinking-not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.”
- George Orwell, 1984, Book 1, Chapter 5
Will Martin the Reformer discipline him?
I think governments around the world and here are really scared of the Internet and the power it gives the little man.
AlanV.
they are terrified of us having a voice and that we will join the ”dots” and realise what they are really up to ….
The Irish Spring will start any day now.
@skeolawn,
Sadly, I don’t think it likely. We as a nation, for the most part are too content with our lives. Most people have homes, electricity, running water, food etc. We haven’t yet been pushed out of our comfort zones and nothing dramatic will happen until that does happen.
We had our chance a year ago to shake it all up, and nothing has changed, just the party in charge.
Please don’t think that I believe we should shut up or anything, but the fact is, we’re too apathetic in our politics because we no longer have severe hardship (bar a small amount of people).
@Seán
You say we had our chance to “shake it all up” but what do you mean? Who would we elect instead of our current government and what would you have liked them to do? Is the fact that nothing has changed perhaps to be seen as a vindication of the decisions of the outgoing government in their twilight months rather than an indictment of the present lot? Ultimately, despite the leftist zeitgeist we are NOT on the streets regularly enough to justify the cynicism that many people here and elsewhere online/across the media seem to present as omnipresent in Irish society.
I’m not saying I think this government is overly impressive but what exactly is so bad about it, given the reality of our situation? The left will always be up in arms in times of recession and that is good because it is the most vulnerable that take the biggest hits. But does the left have to collapse into sniping cynicism? Why can’t we try to have some discussion in this country where the left forfeits it’s self-righteous indignation and actually attempts to convince conservative Ireland that its ambitions can be reasonable as well as noble?
I’m no undercover blueshirt – just tired of the cynicism, tired of the self-indulgent detachment. This is OUR country and though the buck stops with government WE are the ones that are responsible.
The thread on politics.ie contains little ‘frenzied engagement’ but is rather aimed at taking the proverbial out of him.
There is an uncomfortable level of negative interest from this government regarding online freedom, be that in terms of speech or actions we can take. I foresee this heading towards the Powers that be attempting to regulate the Internet ala the newspapers. I think they hate not having a mouthpiece online like rte or the sindo.
People, why can you not all just do what FFG/Labour tell you to do .. FFS, stop this non-compliance and become good little droids for the established parties, and then they will be happy… Pay your household charges, and what was the new bill brought in bg FG 2 weeks ago to restrict internet freedom???
And no more sarcastic comments by anyone about FFG/Labour. This is against the states wishes.
1984 … Big Brother is watching you and is not happy ….
Anyone who doesnt comply to the established parties is a “Shinner” and shoul be sent for re-education ….
Ahh to hell with the subtle attacks … FFG/Labour want to control us .. They can go fcuk themselves. I will not be put in a corner and told not to challenge these crooks and their idiotic decisions.
The comments from this senator are a throwback to a Victorian period when the people’s “betters” knew where to draw the line. Does he travel in and out by horseless carriage?
Sad, all the same, when a member of the Seanad has to state that he is pro free speech. I mean, shouldn’t that be a given for a democrat?
He’s not pro free speech. His comments show he’s actually against free speech.
However, “free speech” is one of those interesting things that everybody has to see to be pro – even if they’re against. Like the way racists can’t accept that they are actually racists – because everybody knows being a racist is a “bad thing”. Orwellian indeed.
He didn’t mention TheJournal.ie.
We need to try harder.
He did when I spoke to him earlier but only in the context of lumping it in with any other website such as Facebook and Twitter. His general point was that he was referring to online media and platforms on whole.
Marc McSharry, son of Ray, estate agent, career senator, gobshite!
another senator talking shite…two in the one week
Yip total gobshite with a very low IQ. Where would he be without his daddy? This fool never stood on his own two feet . . Never!
In fairness Ian he has some important achievements, see list below:
The end.
Himself and Leo Varadkar should form their own political party, the PDs. Protests Denied Party. Do these people realise how anti-democratic their comments seem to some people, including anyone with an IQ?
Yeah the riots in the Uk scared the shit out of them
Shall we shut up like he wants us to ?
Shall we like F**K … No we will continue to have our say ,
and discuss the politicians and their lack of ”character” :)
this guy is a real chip off the old block!
Marc bought a massive bank of land along with a group of his Daddy’s friends in Hazelwood, Sligo – what he is defending at the moment is that he and this buddies didn’t immediately flip the Green Belt/Unlined land deal to a larger group of ‘investors’ and thereby removing the need for Cash advancement to the bank for the original finance loan (now in a state controlled institution – no doubth) This ‘Senetor’ is a walking example of what is still wrong with FF and is reason enough for a call to abolish the Seanad
If any family deserves it, it is the McSharry’s.
With the amount of comments that are frequently removed from this site while not breaching any code except some personal secret code of the censor/editor, I thought that Marc McSharry had a job with the Journal
John
His party are not in power tho …. :)
The man has a point, but it’s not so much subversion of the state, more that the kind of people who spend more of their time posting online are the kind of people who have the time and inclination to do so.
translation?
So he has a point, but it’s a different point than the one he actually made and perhaps one that he wasn’t even making at all?
Being fully aware that “My comments were taken out of context…” is quite a standard defence when people say silly things, it should be noted that considering he was speaking in the context of #tweetgate, it would appear that his comments were genuinely taken out of context…
Calm down p.ie warriors!!
There’s nothing wrong with expressions of opinion. The problem it seems to me is the opinion offered there is often bile and that’s probably what Mac Sharrey was driving at.
If he was driving at that, why didn’t he say it. He’s a politician, presumably he chooses his words carefully – or do you mean he’s not competent to express himself?
Why was my earlier post removed?
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