February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The poll carried out by TNS/mrbi for the Irish Times indicated that the two parties that might make up a alternative government — Fine Gael and Labor — would outpoll the current coalition if a general election were to be held now.
Fianna Fail’s support has fallen to 32 per cent –down six per cent on the previous poll. Support for the PDs is up one per cent to 4.
Support for Fine Gael was meanwhile up three per cent to 25 while Labor’s share was up 2 per cent to 14. Fine Gael’s result is its best in five years.
Another set of poll results, published Monday, showed that 52 per cent of people would prefer a different coalition government but that few had a clear idea of which parties should make it up.
Only 32 per cent wished to see the current government returned. However over a third of those surveyed said they would like to see Fianna Fail play a leading role in any new arrangement.
Some observers believe that the championing of a potential coalition between Fine Gael and Labor has been behind the apparent increase in support for the two parties. Two weeks ago the Labor Party conference gave leader Pat Rabbitte free reign to forge ahead in conjunction with Enda Kenny’s party.
Meanwhile, support for Sinn Fein is back up to pre-Christmas levels with the party recording a two per cent rise to eleven.
Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams also saw a resurgence in his own personal rating. When asked whether they were satisfied with the way Adams was doing his job, 38 per cent of respondents said they were. 41 per cent said they were dissatisfied and 21 per cent had no opinion.
The recent arrest of two men in connection with the murder of East Belfast man Robert McCartney appears to have bolstered Sinn Fein’s standing.
The two government parties have taken a battering in recent months. In December, the government was found to have illegally taken money from the pensions of elderly people in state care.
An RTE Primetime documentary screened two weeks ago, which revealed wide-spread mistreatment of patients at a North Dublin nursing home, led to sustained criticism of the state care regime for old people.
Most damaging of all was the recent interim report by Justice Frederick Morris into Garda corruption in Donegal. The report described the police investigation into the death of cattle-dealer Ritchie Barron as “prejudiced, tendentious and utterly negligent in the highest degree.”
Justice minister Michael McDowell has been called on to resign by Frank McBrearty Jnr, the man set-up for the “murder that never was.” McDowell, who as attorney general opposed the establishment of a tribunal of inquiry into the case, has taken much of the brunt of the report’s findings.
Recent speculation that Ahern may decide to call a snap general election, before 2007, will have been dampened given the poll result. Tensions between the two parties are likely to deepen in the coming months and will lead to speculation that Fianna Fail may look elsewhere for potential coalition partners.
Fianna Fail backbenchers have launched a series of protests against McDowell’s legislative initiatives and have criticized his plans for anti-social behavior orders (ASBOs) and continental Europe style caf