IRISH-based
actor Jeremy Irons has waded into the debate about gay marriage and
suggested that it could be used as an excuse to avoid paying tax.His intervention comes just a week before the Constitutional Convention is due to discuss the issue of same-sex marriage.
Mr Irons (64), who is married to Irish actress Sinead Cusack and lives in Co Cork, also said he was concerned that the term 'gay marriage' had "debased" what marriage is.
"It seems to me that now they're fighting for the name," said Mr Irons in an interview with HuffPost Live, the online television channel of the 'Huffington Post'.
"I worry that it means somehow we debase, or we change, what marriage is. I just worry about that," he added.
The actor, who plays the Pope in 'The Borgias', said that allowing gay marriage could have unintended consequences, such as enabling people to avoid paying inheritance tax.
"Could a father not marry his son?" asked Mr Irons.
When interviewer Josh Zepps said that this would be considered incest, Mr Irons said: "It's not incest between men, because incest is there to protect us from inbreeding, but men don't breed, so incest wouldn't cover that."
The actor insisted that he was not bigoted and said he didn't have a strong feeling on the issue either way.
"I just wish everybody who is living with one other person the best of luck in the world, because it's fantastic," he said.
The Constitutional Convention is set to begin discussing same-sex marriage on April 13. It has received more than 1,000 submissions on the issue.
The stage has been set for an intense debate ahead of the possibility of a referendum.
In a detailed submission, Ireland's Catholic bishops said the church "could no longer carry out the civil element" of marriage if there was any change to the legal definition of marriage.