Some of the No posters erected during the same-sex marriage referendum campaign are “sad and demeaning”, Tánaiste Joan Burton has said.

Ms Burton and Minister for Communications Alex White said they both agreed with a claim by former minister for justice Alan Shatter that children were being used as weapons in the debate.

Ms Burton said the referendum was about civil marriage and had nothing at all to do with the issue of surrogacy.

“As somebody who is adopted, I find the particular poster about surrogacy really quite sad,” she said.

Ms Burton said that many people, brought up in single parent households or who had lost a parent, had told her that they found some of the No campaign posters “sad and demeaning”.

‘Perfet household’

“I don’t think it is worthy of the debate or where Irish people are at in relation to people who are not brought up in this perfect household that the No side appear to have a picture of as the only possibility for people being reared very successfully by people who love them and care for them as children,” she said.

The Irish Times yesterday reported Mr Shatter's accusation that those opposed to same-sex marriage were bringing children unnecessarily into the debate. Mr White said there was substance to the former minister's argument and said the redefining of marriage was not an issue here.

“The referendum is very clearly about a net question for the Irish people not to redefine marriage but to extend marriage to people who cannot currently avail of that institution,” Mr White said. “On Alan’s point, there is a danger – and you can see it in some of the posters – that children are drawn into this referendum in a misleading way and in a way that is not helpful to the debate.”

Ms Burton distanced herself from comments by Archbishop Eamon Martin who claimed the Church might opt out of performing civil ceremonies if the Yes vote is carried on May 22nd.

‘Church’s wisdom’

The Tánaiste said this was a matter for the Catholic Church but that she hoped it would move with the change.

“We have had these debates over a long period of time,” she said. “There was a time when in the Church’s wisdom at that time, if for instance a Catholic got married to a Protestant, they had to get married very early in the morning and generally not in the main body of the Church. That was practice 50 years ago that was regarded as 100 per cent not changeable.

“The Church, like every organisation, reflects the changes in society. But what the Church decides is entirely a matter for the Church.”

The Green Party also launched its campaign for a Yes vote with Cllr Roderic O’Gorman claiming he and his partner feel like second-class citizens in Ireland. He said they are relying on the “kindness of strangers to secure our constitutional rights”.

A no vote would ensure he and his partner “will never be recognised as a family”, said Mr O’Gorman.

He said for young people struggling with their sexuality and older people who have been carrying a secret for years, this would be a devastating loss.