POLITICIANS ARE out of touch with the public mood on the issue of gay
marriage, Equality Authority chairwoman Angela Kerins has suggested.
Ms
Kerins welcomed the passing of legislation allowing for civil
partnerships to take place, but stressed the Equality Authority remained
committed to seeing gay marriage introduced.
“If you look at the
opinion polls now in relation to marriage equality, the ordinary people
of Ireland are really in support of it, the vast majority of people now
are supporting equal marriage,” she said, “so I think politicians will
catch up with that.
“The people of Ireland have come around and
they’re prepared for it and we just need the politicians to catch up
with that . . . If the people of Ireland strongly support this, I think
politicians will follow through too.”
At the launch of the
Equality Authority’s annual report for 2010, Ms Kerins said
opinion polls had consistently showed a continuous increase in support
for gay marriage.
An
Irish Times /Behaviour Attitudes poll in September of last year
showed just over two-thirds of people, or 67 per cent, believed gay
couples should be allowed to marry.
Ms Kerins said all families
should be treated equally and legislation had to keep up with changes in
the make-up of families.
The “modern diversity of parenting
arrangements” should be acknowledged in family law, “so that the rights
and responsibilities of both the mother and the father and all those in a
parenting role are appropriately recognised”.
Ms Kerins said the
Equality Authority had been working on the area of family rights,
particularly the rights of children and the involvement of fathers in
their lives.
The planned referendum on children’s rights offered
an opportunity for a “national debate” in relation to the rights of
children and their families.
“I would urge the Government to take
courageous steps in this area to ensure that every child and every
family is recognised and supported equally.”