Image: finegael.ie

I am about to go on a rant. Feel free to head off to the Alainn or Appalling section and enjoy your Monday. I am angry. Ok, so I didn’t vote for him, but who the hell does Enda Kenny think he is?

Remember back in school, when you’d be writing an essay and you’d start with the Webster/Cambridge dictionary definition of a word; well here’s Republic:

A state in which the supreme power rests in the body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives chosen directly or indirectly by them.

So that means, we give power to the government so that they do what we tell them to do. Right?

2006 - The first poll, asking the public what we thought about same-sex marriage showed a majority of the population (80%) supported the introduction of “some partnership rights for gay couples”.

2008 - Then, two years later, another poll showed that 84% of Irish people supported civil marriage or civil partnerships for gay and lesbian couples, with 58% supporting full marriage rights in registry offices.

The Irish Times ran an online poll, which showed that support for full same-sex marriage was at 63%, up 5%.

2009 - A survey commissioned by MarriagEquality in February 2009 indicated that 62% of Irish people supported same-sex marriage and would vote in favour of it if a referendum were held.

2010 - Another Irish Times survey showed that 67% felt that same-sex couples should be allowed to marry.

2011 - A poll by the Sunday Times/RED C showed that 73% of people supported allowing same-sex couples marry (with 53% ‘agreeing strongly’ with the idea)

2012 - The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform’s own survey shows that 73% of voters support the idea of same-sex marriages being recognised in the constitution.

Image: marriagequality.ie

The long and short of it is that the vast majority of people who pay the Taoiseach’s wages want same-sex couples to have the right to full marriage. Every year for the last six years the people who own the country have told the government what they want. We were given Civil Partnership. Great thanks. But did you read the polls, Minister? The questions have been about same-sex marriage, and every poll has shown that’s what the people want.

We all know that politics isn’t about doing the right thing, it’s about doing the thing that will get you voted-in the next time. But with such over-whelming support for something so human, so up-lifting, you’d think that the Taoiseach would be all over it. You can just see the spin doctors loving the headline changes from morose stories about debt and money to good-news tales of people in love.

Not our Enda though. Apparently he will not be pressurised into ticking a box on the issue. Grand, don’t vote but give us the chance. Give the people of Ireland, the people who are crying out for this, the people who pay your wages and expenses, the chance to tick a box on the issue.

If you don’t have the courage to lead, let us make the decision for you.