Gay rights groups welcome evidence of growing public tolerance
The Irish Examiner/Red C survey on attitudes to homosexuality also reveals that exactly half of Irish adults would be happy to allow gay people to adopt children on the same terms as heterosexuals.
The findings are published as a Government-appointed working group, due to report in June, examines the legal, financial and familial implications of introducing civil partnership legislation.
Gay rights campaigners welcomed the poll's results. Eoin Collins, director of policy change at the Gay & Lesbian Equality Network (GLEN), said: "When you consider where we have come from where you could be imprisoned for life for being gay this is definitely progress. People are changing."
Equality Authority Chief Executive Niall Crowley said: "It's a measure at a moment in time but it reflects a trend that's clearly moving towards a better, stronger recognition of diversity."
Traditional attitudes prevail among some sectors of society. One in six of those surveyed believe homosexuality is wrong and one in three would not feel comfortable if a member of their immediate family told them they were gay.
One in three would hesitate about voting for a TD in the next general election if the candidate was known to be gay and one in seven still believe that children brought up in a homosexual household are likely to grow up to be gay.
Red C interviewed a random sample of 1,000 adults across the country by telephone between February 13-15 and the findings were weighted to reflect the profile of all adults nationally. Of those asked, 51% said they were in favour of the introduction of civil partnerships for homosexuals similar to those introduced in Britain and the North late last year.
There were marked differences in the responses of men and women with twice as many men believing homosexuality is wrong.
Regional differences were also evident. Almost one in four Munster residents believes homosexuality is wrong while resistance to gay marriage was highest in Connaught and Ulster.
Younger age groups and people in higher income brackets were more supportive of introducing new gay rights than those at the other end of the age and income scales.
Niall Crowley said the disapproval expressed by some of those surveyed was "disturbing but not surprising".
He added "The reality is while this is a period of change, gay and lesbian people still continue to have many negative experiences."
Mr Eoin Collins said, however, he believed even more people would react positively to new rights for gays than the survey could measure. "In a survey, people respond to an abstract scenario but when they are faced with a real-life situation, they tend to respond very well. The situation is evolving rapidly. More and more young people are coming out, and more and more ordinary people are realising that this can be my cousin, my brother, my friend, my neighbour."
