Ireland’s prime minister, Enda Kenny, has called on the country to vote yes in the forthcoming gay marriage equality referendum.
Speaking live on Saturday night on RTE television during his annual party congress, the taoiseach said a yes vote would send out a powerful signal that Ireland had evolved into a “fair, compassionate and tolerant nation”.
Kenny told his Fine Gael party – the dominant force in the ruling coalition in Dublin – that a national endorsement of gay marriage would also send a positive message to the gay community in the Republic.
“I believe that this is the right thing to do,” he said. “I and the Fine Gael party strongly support a yes vote.
“And therefore I say to all same-sex couples in our country: this is about you, it’s about your right to say two small words, made up of three simple letters – I do.
“For you, in your lives together, may they become your letters of freedom.”
The Fine Gael-Labour government announced last week that the referendum will be held on 22 May.
Successive opinion polls have found strong support for gay marriage equality in a state that was once dominated by the Roman Catholic church and was synonymous with conservative religious values.
So far the Catholic hierarchy has stayed out of the gay marriage battle, leaving the campaigning for a no vote in the hands of lay conservative Catholics including writers and historians.
They have concentrated their opposition to gay marriage on concerns over LGBT people adopting children.
Last month Fine Gael health minister Leo Varadkar became the first member of an Irish government to say publicly he is gay.
Varadkar’s decision to reveal his sexuality was influenced, he said, by a desire to be “fully honest” with the Irish people.
