THE resounding vote in favour of a referendum to change the Constitution to allow same-sex marriage is a historic moment for Ireland's gay and lesbian community.

But it remains to be seen whether the Oireachtas will replicate the passionate and respectful debate that led the Convention on the Constitution to pass its unequivocal vote.

Members voted strongly in favour of gay marriage and the introduction of mandatory laws to regulate the legal status of children living in same-sex families.

All of the key battlegrounds in a coming referendum campaign relate to children.

If a referendum is held and approved, it will result in major changes to laws relating to adoption as well as parentage, guardianship, custody and access.

Child maintenance, tax and inheritance legislation will also need to be overhauled if the current constitutional gold standard of the family based on marriage between a man and woman is altered.

Much of the existential angst at the convention related not to the right of gay and lesbians to marry each other but to the thorny issue of assisted human reproduction (AHR) techniques such as IVF and surrogacy which are challenging our understanding of parenthood.

It is this Rubicon – who are the mammies or the daddies – which the body politic may not be able to cross.

But it is wrong to frame the unregulated area of assisted reproductive technology as a gay rights issue.

The issues of parentage and the right of a child to know who is their biological mother and father is accentuated in same-sex families because of the absence of a biological link between at least one member of a same-sex family and the child.

The Supreme Court frozen embryo row and the recent High Court surrogacy action involving a married woman who fought to be recognised as the legal mother of her genetic twins born to a surrogate – her sister – are timely reminders that reproductive technologies are problematic for all families, whether heterosexual or homosexual.

There may be many unforeseen consequences ahead.

But that itself is the inevitable consequence of a chronic failure by successive governments to address the changing nature of Irish families and to respond to the ethical and legal challenges posed by scientific advances.

Irish Independent