March 2009 - Research by Lansdowne Market Research for MarriagEquality

61% of people believe that denying same sex couples the choice to marry is discriminatory.

March 2008 - Research by Lansdowne Market Research for MarriagEquality

58% believe that gay and lesbian couples should be allowed to marry in a registry office.

November 2006 -Research by Lansdowne Market Research for GLEN

51% believe that same-sex couples should be allowed to marry.

84% in favour of civil marriage or civil partnership

October 2006 - Research by Millward Brown for the Sunday Tribune

64% of people favoured gay and lesbian couples having the same legal and financial rights as married couples.

Collectively, these polls demonstrate consistent majority support for civil marriage for gay couples and reflect the inherent sense of justice of the Irish people. NOISE believes that it is time for the government to reflect these views and to take the obvious step of implementing full civil marriage rights for gay couples as has been done already in Spain, Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, South Africa and Sweden. This would be straightforward, as the administrative arrangements are already in place under the rules for civil marriage. Civil marriage will introduce equal rights for LGBT people rather than the separate and unequal recognition that is envisioned in the planned civil partnership scheme.

In April 2006, Bertie Ahern T.D. stated, “Sexual orientation is not an incidental attribute. It is an essential part of who we are”. It is time for his successor, Brian Cowen, to take this observation to its natural conclusion by acknowledging the equal status of Ireland’s LGBT relationships. This would be consistent with the findings of the Government’s working group on domestic partnerships (Colley Report), which stated in November 2006 that civil marriage for gay couples would represent the “full equality outcome”.