A Red C Poll released today shows that the majority of Irish people are open to sharing the right to marry with gay Irish people.

The poll of 1,000 people carried out by Paddy Power and RedC was announced on the Today with Sean O’Rourke show on RTÉ Radio One today.

The poll asked people how they intend to vote in May’s equal marriage referendum. It found that 76% of people intend to vote in favour of the move. It adds that 21% will vote no and 3% don’t know. 60% of these said their votes were “secure”.

Yes Equality campaign spokesperson Brian Sheehan said, “We are confident that a majority of Irish citizens believe that everyone should be free to marry the person they love and will vote yes. We are acutely aware that some people have valid questions requiring responses.

“Yes Equality is a family values campaign based in every county in Ireland. Our people are eager to answer any questions. We don’t want one person with a doubt walking into a polling booth on May 22.”

He continued, “We won’t win this referendum on our own, we need all Irish people to get involved. Currently, of the 78% in favour, 60% of these are certain of their support. This is reassuring but we are not taking any votes for granted. Sharing the freedom to marry is an opportunity to guarantee constitutional equality for all Irish people but specifically Ireland’s gay and lesbian citizens.

“This is a people’s referendum, called by the people for the people, hence support is currently high and we will be working across Ireland to maintain this support,” Sheehan concluded.