The Church of Ireland has said the Constitution should include a broad definition of the family to recognise numerous units which are not marriage-based, including same-sex unions.
In a public oral submission made yesterday to the Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution, which is reviewing family rights, the church advocated changes in the Constitution to protect not only the institution of marriage but to recognise other domestic situations such as cohabiting and gay couples.
Yesterday's group included the Church of Ireland Bishop of Clogher, Dr Michael Jackson, and other church representatives.
Sam Harper, honorary secretary of the General Synod, said the definition of the family had changed. The family protected at present by the Constitution was the family based on marriage, and he encouraged the adoption of the UN definition of the family, which was much wider.
"We feel strongly that there should be State care for all those in mutual relationships. We believe in the balance of rights for the unit," he said.
A clear distinction needed to be made between the definition of marriage and that of the family. "We continue to stress marriage as the optimum context, particularly for the nurture of children, but at the same time we feel that other domestic situations should be accommodated and legislative provision made for them," he said.
He said they did not recognise marriage for gay couples. However, a same-sex union should be given constitutional protection under the broad definition of the family.
"While we favour the inclusion of gay couples in the broad definition, it could not in our view be considered a marriage, and we would not want the review to go beyond the point where it makes it a disadvantage to be married," Mr Harper told the committee.
The Church of Ireland submission also called for greater transparency in family law cases without the violation of privacy.
Currently, the church said, there was a difficulty in obtaining accurate statistics on the outcome of in camera cases and anecdotal evidence was all that was available.
The submission urged the Minister for Justice to amend the Constitution to allow greater availability of judgment and decisions.
In addition, the submission said that equality of access to the courts in family law cases was vital, even if the result was increased expenditure on the provision of civil legal aid.
Last week at the committee, the Catholic hierarchy called for legislative options to be exhausted before any change to Article 41 of the Constitution which "runs the risk of emptying or removing the special position of the family based on marriage".
This view was supported in a submission by the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. The Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland yesterday urged the committee to retain much of the current content, stating that a family should be defined as comprising a man and woman in a legally binding agreement of marriage.