A leading Labour politician has called for Lucinda Creighton (pictured) to be sacked as Fine Gael Equality spokesperson after saying that marriage was “primarily about children”. Labour’s equality spokeswoman Kathleen Lynch said the Dublin TD should be removed from her post by Enda Kenny.

And the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) added their voice to the attack on Ms Creighton, saying that her belief that marriage was intrinsically heterosexual was “simply preposterous”.

However, at his last press conference before today’s election, Enda Kenny appeared cool on the idea of holding a referendum on marriage saying such a move was “not a priority” and civil partnership legislation passed last year was sufficient.

The Evening Herald reported on Wednesday that Ms Creighton has been the victim of an orchestrated hate campaign by same-sex marriage advocates.

It said her official Facebook page had been taken over by campaigners who have attacked her for stating her opposition to same-sex marriage even though she supported the Civil Partnership Bill.

Many of the comments contain very abusive language. Others describing her as a “disgusting human being,” “a homophobic idiot” and “a disgrace of a woman” have been posted on her page.

“You should be ashamed of yourself,” wrote one contributor to her page.

Another wrote, “You and your party are a joke and you should be ashamed of yourself, you made an absolute fool of yourself on twitter.”

“You should be sacked for gross misconduct.”

Ms Creighton has decided not to censor the comments or remove them from her Facebook page because she wants people to be able to see the extent of the abuse.

The Twitter post which led to the attack read: “I think marriage is primarily about children, main purpose being to propagate & create environment for children to grow up. I think civil partnership should ensure gay couples r treated fairly and justly re tax inheritance etc & recognition by the State But marriage is different.”

Ms Lynch, Labour TD for Cork North Central accused Ms Creighton of having a “stereotypical view” of marriage and not being “serious about equality”.

Labour wants to hold a constitutional referendum to legalise same-sex marriage. The party heavily emphasised the policy at its manifesto launch and the commitment is a key element of Labour’s social agenda for the next parliament.

Hazel Cullen, spokeswoman for gay rights group Noise, said: “Ms Creighton’s attitude to marriage is frankly bizarre in 2011. If marriage is about procreation then should older people be banned from getting married, or should couples who experience fertility trouble have their marriages rendered void? There are many gay couples in Ireland lovingly raising children and Lucinda Creighton is ignoring them and their rights.”

While claiming the ICCL was not a political organisation, its director, Mark Kelly, suggested that Ms Creighton had demonstrated “a fundamentally flawed understanding” of her brief as Equality spokesperson.

He added: “Moreover, for an equality spokesperson to suggest that the procreative aspect of heterosexual marriage is its defining characteristic is simply preposterous.”