A new poll shows a majority of people are in favour of allowing same-sex marriage in Ireland.

It comes ahead of the first meeting of the Constitutional Convention which is set to consider the issue along with several other topics in the coming months ahead of possible referendums.

The only proposed change that does not meet with public approval is the proposal to reduce the voting age to 17.

The study was conducted across 1,000 voters by Ipsos MRBI and the results in The Irish Times today show 53% back the introduction of same-sex marriage.

On the issue of same-sex marriage 53% said they would vote Yes while 30% would vote No.

A further 17% have no opinion on the matter.

While women were significantly more in favour of the change than men and younger voters but voters aged over 55 were solidly opposed to the change.

Seanad & voting abroad

On abolition of the Seanad 55% said they would vote Yes, 22% said No and 23% had no opinion. 

The most popular issue was to give Irish citizens living abroad the right to vote in Presidential elections here: 68% of those polled said Yes and 17% No.

On the matter of whether the reference to the woman's life within the home should be removed from the Constitution the a total of 41% said the reference should be removed, while 19% said it should not and a large chunk of 40% had no opinion.