A key Oireachtas committee is to look at whether the Constitution should be changed to allow for gay marriages as part of a major review of family rights.
The all-party Oireachtas committee on the Constitution has been asked by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, to conduct a review of the articles in the Constitution relating to the family.
Part of the review will include the issue of the rights of gay couples, the chairman of the committee, Fianna Fail TD, Mr Denis O'Donovan, said last night. He said committee members would be looking at all options regarding the provision of greater rights for gay couples.
The committee will be inviting various groups and legal experts to make submissions and presentations on the issue. The committee will meet later this month with constitutional lawyer, Mr Gerard Hogan, to discuss the issues it would be examining, including the recognition of same sex unions.
On that issue, Mr O'Donovan said he did not want to prejudge the work of the committee. "We will be taking a very objective look at [same sex unions] but I can't predict what the outcome will be here," he said.
The committee is expected to make a full report to the Government by next July.
There had been fundamental changes in society since the Constitution was written in 1937. "We're looking at the whole area of family rights and children's rights," Mr O'Donovan said. "If you look at the provisions for the family in the Constitution, they were written when women were seen as being tied to the kitchen sink."
Two members of the committee said yesterday that they favoured the State allowing for gay marriages. The Labour Party TD, Ms Jan O'Sullivan, said her party would "favour gay couples having the same rights that everyone else has, whether you call it marriage or something else".
"We feel the option should be available to gay couples" she said.
The Fianna Fail TD, Mr Barry Andrews, also said he was in favour of State recognition of gay marriages. But he foresaw difficulties in relation to the other rights it would confer on gay couples on issues regarding family rights, such as adoption.
On Saturday the leading constitutional lawyer, Prof William Binchy, told a conference on human rights and relationships that official recognition of same sex unions was likely to be imposed on the State through European case law if the Government failed to legislate for it.
He said that the domino effect of European case law meant that "if we do nothing our law will undoubtedly be changed for us".
He said that options for legislators included the abolition of marriage, the introduction of a civil partnership, opening marriage to include same-sex unions, and introducing different categories of marriage.