Labour, Sinn Féin and the Green Party have come out against the decision of the all-party Oireachtas committee not to recommend a referendum to give same-sex couples and non-marital families the same status as marriage.
TDs from the three parties on the committee opposed the majority decision and issued a minority report recommending a referendum. Labour committee member, Jan O'Sullivan, said yesterday the Constitution should be amended to recognise same-sex relationships and non-marital families.
"The contribution that the traditional family makes should be acknowledged. However, we also believe that other family forms should be given constitutional protection too," said Ms O'Sullivan.
"The Constitution should be amended so that it expressly stipulates the right of the State to recognise families not based on marriage and the right of the Oireachtas to legislate for the protection and benefit of members of such families," she said.
"Our problem is that the only family units constitutionally recognised are those grounded on a valid marriage. This impacts on all of the 77,000 cohabiting couples in the State, including 1,300 same-sex couples, as well as lone-parent families."
Sinn Féin committee member Arthur Morgan said some members of the committee allowed fears of a divisive referendum to prevent them from supporting proposals for substantially amending the Constitution.
"The definition of the family in Article 41.3.2 serves to unnecessarily limit family rights and hampers the realisation of full equality rights," Mr Morgan said. "Because constitutional protection for families is only extended to heterosexual families, based on marriage, this permits discrimination against other family formation.
"Given the diversity of family formations which exist in the State today . . . almost everybody knows somebody in relationship other than traditional marriage. The State must move to recognise the status of these relationships."
The Green Party said that the committee's proposals for same sex-couples did not go far enough but it urged that the main recommendations should proceed without delay.
"It is wholly unacceptable that the committee should discriminate against same- sex couples," said the party's representative, Ciarán Cuffe.
He said the Green Party favoured the proposal that a referendum be held on a constitutional amendment to recognise family life not based on marriage.
"One third of all births in the State are outside of marriage. New forms of family life, not based on marriage, deserve respect and recognition in our Constitution."
He called on Government to act on the recommendations in the report and to hold a referendum to recognise the rights of children.
"Let us ensure that this report is acted on and that unlike the previous report on property rights, it does not gather dust," he said.