The Equality Authority has called on the Government to legalise same-sex marriage.

Speaking at the launch of the group’s annual report for 2010, Angela Kerins (pictured), the chairwoman of the Authority said she welcomed the passage of the civil partnership bill last year, according to the Irish Times.

The bill gave same-sex couples who register under the legislation all of the tax and pension benefits given to married couples.

Those in caring, dependent relationships that are not sexual in nature receive no such benefits.

Civil registrars who refuse to carry out a same-sex civil union can be jailed for up to six months, while church facilities which refuse to allow same-sex couples to host receptions could be sued under the new law.

However, Ms Kerins insisted that the Equality Authority, which is funded by the Government and the European Union, remained committed to seeing same-sex marriage introduced.

And she claimed that public opinion backed such legislation. “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. So I think politicians will catch up with that,” she said.

“The people of Ireland have come round 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.”

She 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 suggested that 67 per cent of people believed that same-sex marriage should be legislated.

Ms Kerins also said that the Government should give all families the same rights, and that legislation had to keep up with changes in the make-up of Irish families.

The Irish Constitution says that the family based on marriage possesses “inalienable and imprescriptible rights” and pledges the State to “guard with special care the institution of Marriage”.

Ms Kerins said the authority had been working on the area of family rights, particularly the rights of children and the involvement of fathers in their lives.

“The best interests of children require that the modern diversity of parenting arrangements 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,” she added.

Research has repeatedly shown that children do best when raised by their married, biological parents. 

Sara McLanahan and Gary Sandefur, two leading experts in family sociology, have said that the two parent ideal is the best family structure for ensuring that children’s basic needs are met.

In their book, Growing Up with a Single Parent: What hurts, What helps, they write: “The fact that both parents have a biological connection to the child would increase the likelihood that the parents would identify with the child and be willing to sacrifice for that child, and it would reduce the likelihood that either parent would abuse the child…”