Iris Robinson, the DUP’s Minister for Homophobia, has gone way too far. I suspect even she realises that now.

True, she has marginally back-pedalled over a transcript of a Westminster meeting where she was quoted as saying that: “There can be no viler act, apart from homosexuality and sodomy, than sexually abusing innocent children.” She now insists that: “What I clearly intended to say was that child abuse was worse even than homosexuality and sodomy.”

But even if you allow her that clarification, that comment in itself and her original quotes to this paper on the story leave little room for doubt.

“I cannot think of anything more sickening than a child being abused. It is comparable to the act of homosexuality. I think they are all comparable. I feel totally repulsed by both ? ”

To sum up then, Iris says she doesn’t think being gay is worse than being a child abuser. She just thinks it’s on a par. And, it surely follows, believes it to be so much worse than all those other ‘lesser’ crimes/sins.

Like murder. Rape. Stabbing people. Beating up little old ladies ?

There have inevitably been calls for the resignation of Mrs Robinson MP and MLA.

But it is not just the letters after her name that this story is about — it’s also about the letters before it.

Iris Robinson is the missus of the First Minister of Northern Ireland. And however many of us would argue that a woman’s views are her own business and should not be seen to reflect on her husband, the fact is that in the real world they do.

They reflect on her husband and on her party. And while Iris’s friends and supporters may well be rallying round to support her and tell her that she’s being unfairly picked upon and pilloried for her genuinely held opinions, the fact is that she is causing enormous damage to both Peter and the DUP.

Where to start?

First there’s the basic point that since Mr Robinson took over the DUP show, Iris has consistently hogged the headlines with her ‘outbursts’ and ‘controversial comments’.

The result? The DUP agenda is seen as being not about health and education and jobs. But about sexual orientation and Biblical interpretation.

On a pragmatic level, not clever politics.

Secondly there’s the whole ‘church in politics’ business. Under Ian Paisley, who was a much, much cuter political mover than his Dr No image suggested, the DUP had gradually diluted its former fundamentalist reputation. Put bluntly, it was being seen within unionism as less in thrall to the Bible thumpers.

The Ulster Unionist Party used to boast about how the UUP was a broad church. But the DUP trumped that claim when it won the support of tens of thousands of disaffected unionist voters.

And we should remember this ? every bit as amazing as Ian Paisley’s Chuckle routine with Sinn Fein was his earlier trick in getting so very many traditional UUP supporters to abandon the party of their forefathers and throw in their lot with him.

These people represented, and represent, varying degrees of Protestant church affiliation. And none. Their views on the 21st century world are certainly not all drawn from the Book of Leviticus.

Talking to such voters I know that many of them are deeply, deeply uncomfortable about what they perceive as Mrs Robinson pointing up a return to fundamentalism within the DUP. They have no problem with the fact that some in the DUP regard themselves as ‘Born Again’ and live their lives accordingly. But, put mildly, there is no enthusiasm for the Ayatollah Iris.

Finally, there is the issue of homosexuality and people’s views thereof.

Sometimes I wonder when Iris talks about “the gay community” what exactly she envisages.

In fact, “the gay community” isn’t just gay men and women themselves. It’s their mothers and fathers. Their brothers and sisters. Their children. Their wider families. Their friends and their neighbours. Those who love them, like them, respect them.

It’s a wider, more diverse constituency that I suspect Iris realises. And it contains — or at least until recently contained — a fair few DUP voters. I’ve said before that I do not think Iris Robinson is a bad person.

But I do think her comments are outrageous, cruel and wrong. And I can well understand why so many people are now saying that as an MP and MLA she hasn’t just gone too far — she hasn’t gone far enough.

That Iris, in other words, should go.