The call for submissions comes ahead of the convention’s examination of the issue at its next meeting on 13 April. Mr Arnold said one of the central principles of the convention is that it is a citizens’ forum.
“I am calling for people to engage with the convention by making their views known on what is a very important subject for many in Irish society today,” he said.
Submissions, proposals and comments must be received by Tuesday 19 Mach 2013 and can be made on the convention’s website www.constitution.ie.
Mr Arnold said that they were keen that the convention’s deliberations and subsequent decisions would be properly informed.
“Therefore, we want to hear from all sides of the debate regarding the proposal to make a constitutional provision for same sex marriage.”
He said the convention was encouraging organisations, citizens and the disapora to make their voices heard.
Pat Buckley from the European Life Network has appealed to people to make submissions on the issue.
“The experience of legalising marriage for same-sex couples in Europe and North America shows that such legalisation has negative effects for real marriage and for families and it is vital to be able to access the latest evidence for the purpose of the consultation,” he wrote.
Recently Dr Patricia Morgan, a British family policy researcher, presented research to the House of Commons committee examining the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill.
In a paper entitled “What happens to marriage and families when the law recognises “Same-Sex Marriage”? Dr Morgan presented the findings arising from data coming from countries where same sex marriage is available.
Having studied the experiences and statistics from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Canada and the US, Dr Morgan concluded that availability or the right to same sex marriage was what was important to the gay community.
“Participation [is] more or less irrelevant to sexual minorities. There is little or no difference in take-up between ‘marriage’ and registered partnerships. In places that have one or both and significant numbers of homosexuals,there has been no groundswell.”
The researcher with SPUC also concluded that when same sex couples married, they were more likely than their heterosexual equivalents to change their minds later.
Optimistic accounts of a re-vitalisation of marriage or even "no damage done" are, she said “at very least, premature. This is not saying that same sex marriage is the reason for marital decline anywhere - simply how it does nothing to prevent it”.
Her research also showed that :
- as marriage is redefined to accommodate same-sex couples, this reinforces the idea that marriage is irrelevant to parenthood
- same-sex marriage leads to the casualisation of heterosexual unions and separation of marriage and parenthood
- in the move to same-sex marriage, opposite-sex relationships have to conform to gay norms rather than vice-versa
- same-sex marriage may begin the process of severing marriage from family in otherwise family-friendly societies such as Spain and the Netherlands.