LUCINDA CREIGHTON has predicted that Ireland will hold a referendum on permitting full same-sex marriage in the coming years – but stopped short of offering a prediction on whether it would pass.

The EU Affairs minister told the BBC she foresaw a referendum “to change the definition of marriage in our constitution at some point”.

When asked how she saw it being received by the Irish public, however, Creighton refused to offer a comment, saying: “I really don’t know. Genuinely, I don’t know.”

Creighton, who herself ardently supported the civil partnership laws but opposes full marriage for gay couples, said there was “not always something wrong with tradition” as a basis for opposing same-sex marriage.

“I don’t think that, necessarily, modernisation means you totally abandon tradition – I think you can have both side by side,” she told the HardTALK programme.

There are many ways in which we need to modernise – I just don’t happen to believe that’s one of them.

The 100-member Constitutional Convention, which has been tasked with making recommendations to modernise and update the Constitution, is due to discuss the issue of same-sex marriage at a meeting in April.