We’ve got just about a fortnight to go until voting in the same-sex marriage referendum.

As the campaign heats up and reaches its closing stages, both sides are doubling down on communicating their messages to the general public.

The issue of children and families has become a significant - and controversial - part of the debates surrounding the referendum.

Here are some of the key moments in the campaign so far where that was the case:

• May 7th: A couple whose stock image was used by the No campaign say they “completely support same-sex marriage”.

In a statement released through Amnesty International Ireland, the couple said: “We were surprised and upset to see that the photo was being used as part of a campaign with which we do not agree. We completely support same-sex marriage, and we believe that same-sex couples' should of course be able to adopt, as we believe that they are equally able to provide children with much-needed love and care”.

“To suggest otherwise is offensive to us, and to many others,” they added

• May 1st: First Families First say the amendment, as it is currently phrased, would undermine the biological connections between parents and their children

The group claims the referendum would "amount to an act of vandalism against the Constitution".

Children’s Minister James Reilly says the referendum is an "equality issue", and does not impinge on rights of parents

He says the issues dealt with in the Children and Family Relationships Bill are separate to the referendum, adding: “This bill is now passed and will be enacted, regardless of the outcome of the referendum”.

• April 29th: Fergus Finlay of Barnardos describes No posters as “sickening insult to the thousands and thousands of children and lone parents who love and care from each other in Ireland”.

He says they have been motivated in part to come out in favour of the referendum in response to the tactics of the No side

Barnardos, the ISPCC, Children's Rights Alliance and a number of other children's organisations launch their campaign for a Yes vote.

• April 15th: Breda O’Brien says the referendum is not a human right. "There is no human right to same-sex marriage...I don't see it as a human right...," she said.

"I do think that there are huge important human rights here - I think there is the right to gay people to respect for their relationships, I think there is the right of gay people to stand up in front of the friends and neighbours and say ‘I do’, as they do already in civil partnerships,” she added.

Ms O’Brien also criticised former President Mary McAleese for supporting a Yes vote

• March 2nd: Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald says the real message of the referendum is getting lost – with the Children and Family Relationships Bill, which will allow gay couples to adopt, being linked to the vote

“I think some of the debate has done a disservice to the wide range of the bill – in terms of assuming that it is about once aspect only, and linking it to the referendum, that’s not true,” she said

• January 19th: David Quinn of the Iona Institute says children and marriage - not homosexuals - are at the heart of the debate on the issue

Quinn said: “In any country that has changed the definition of marriage…the rights of children always get affected as well”.

“Once you change the Constitutional definition of marriage…it also means that when it comes to things like adoption law or fostering or IVF, those laws will have to say that when it comes to children a man and man is exactly the same as a man and a woman,” Quinn added

In the same debate, Colm O’Gorman of Amnesty International shifted the onus from parents, to the right of children to be cared for, saying: “This is not about adult rights – no adult has the right to adopt - a child has a right to be provided for, to be nurtured, to be loved, to be cared for”.

“This is why there’s a children’s rights argument at the centre of this debate – but it’s not the one that David (Quinn) is putting forward,” O’Gorman added.