How held back is Ireland due to the church?

Irelands religious have their fingers in a lot of pies and while the church does not play a big role now in terms of legislation a lot of groups with ties to the church still hold a strong lobbying position. As was detailed in the Turn off the Blue lights site(http://www.turnoffthebluelight.ie/the-opposition/organisations/) on prostitution on the links between the various religious groups, we see more and more religious influenced faith groups now voicing their objection to things such as abortion, same sex marriage etc. With this in mind how far would we have come if these groups did not exist and how far would be socially without the church and other faith based organisations? Thanks to the church condoms would not be legal for years until there was ruling that we had a right to contraception and family planning (remember the pill train?).