Gay men convicted under sexual offence laws could soon be exonerated.

Labour is putting forward new laws in the Seanad today to overturn convictions.

It has been more than two decades since homosexuality was decriminalised in this country. Labour has said it is time those found guilty received an apology.

Last year, Ireland became the first country in the world to introduce same sex marriage by popular vote.

Labour Senator Ged Nash said it’s a shame we were not always so liberal.

“It would be very hard to quantify the number of people who left this country because they could not be who they were. How many doctors, nurses, engineers, teachers, scientists, artists did we lose because of the climate of fear of having these laws on our statute books?”