Labour have committed to holding a referendum to legalise same-sex marriage if they are elected to power.

In their manifesto published today, the party says that the party is committed to holding a referendum to provide for constitutional recognition of same-sex marriage.

Both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have made clear their opposition to such a referendum.

In response to a query on the subject from the Irish Catholic, both parties said they favoured retaining the current Constitutional definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman.

Labour’s manifesto also clearly states that the party “supports entitling all parties to a marriage or civil partnership to apply to adopt a child”

Labour politicians repeatedly made clear their committment to legalising same-sex marriage during the debates surrounding the Government’s Civil Partnership Bill last year.

Labour’s manifesto also confirmed that the party will change Section 37 of the Employment Equality Act that it favours forcing schools to hire openly homosexual teachers, which would make it impossible for Catholic schools to teach Catholic sexual morality in full.

The document also said that the party would force teacher training colleges to end compulsory religious education.

It says: “Labour will ensure the five teaching colleges introduce a Freedom of Conscience clause so that trainee teachers no longer are obliged to undergo compulsory religious education.”

It also commits Labour to advancing “equality for trans-gender people by enacting gender recognition legislation, and by extending to them protections afforded by existing equality legislation”.

Labour’s manifesto pledges to hold a National Forum on school patronage open to participation from all the stakeholders in the education sector, “with the aim of ensuring that our education system can provide a sufficiently diverse number of schools which cater for all religions and none”.

In response to queries from the Irish Catholic, the party said it would allow denominational schools to continue to exist.

However its manifesto says that, in government, Labour will “negotiate the transfer of school infrastructure currently owned by the 18 religious orders cited in the Ryan Report, at no extra cost, to the State”.

However it adds that the existing patronage and activities of these schools “will remain unchanged”.

It says that Labour “will also ensure that school buildings and land are zoned for educational use, so that they cannot easily be sold and lost to the system”.