The minister responsible for Túsla says its decision to cut funding for the Catholic marriage agency Accord has nothing to do with the referendum on same-sex marriage.

James Reilly says Tusla is happy to fund marriage counselling services but not religious marriage preparation courses.

He was responding to claims in the Dáil from independent TD Mattie McGrath, who believes the funding is linked to the referendum.

Minister Reilly says Tusla is simply treating Accord the same as it treats every other outside agency.

Accord is seeing its funding from government cut from €1.9m €1.6 m.

The decision by Tusla - the children and family agency - will see €378,000 in funding for the courses provided by the Catholic agency withdrawn.

Accord has questioned whether this is because of the Catholic church campaign for a No vote.

But Fine Gael Director of Elections for the referendum, Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney, says it is not related.

The Irish Catholic newspaper claims the move will give weight to church leaders' fears that church agencies who do not support the government's 'agenda on the redefinition of marriage will be starved of funding'.

A spokesman for the Children's Minister James Reilly has said the decision has nothing to do with the upcoming referendum.

Michael Kelly, deputy editor of the Irish Catholic, told the Pat Kenny Show here on Newstalk the timing is a coincidence.

The CEO of Tusla, Gordon Jeyes, told Newstalk Breakfast earlier there was no political input to the decision.

And the CEO of Barnardos, Fergus Finlay, says his agency - which is calling for a Yes vote next week - has also suffered a cut in funding from Tusla in recent weeks.

He told Breakfast the link between the two is unfair.