Brian Stanley is a TD for Laois-Offaly and is the Sinn Fein spokesperson on the Environment. He believes that it is appropriate that the right to civil marriage should be extended by the state to all couples that want to avail of it.

‘We have to recognise that the Proclamation of 1916, read by Padraig Pearse on the steps of the GPO, guaranteed equal treatment for the citizens of the state. We can’t limit that. We can’t say people who are gay or lesbian can’t have the same rights as everybody else.’