Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The difficulty is that on many occasions opinion polls have been proved not to pan out when the people vote on referendum day. What people express in an opinion poll will not necessarily represent the final outcome. The only true way to assess the people's will on a given matter, in terms of primary legislation, is to give them an opportunity to vote in a referendum. All we can do is say this was the view of the people at a given moment. Dr. Devine mentioned in her presentation that the last time a poll had been conducted on the issue was in 2013 - as I recall, it was conducted by Red C - before which there was a ten-year gap.