Support for the Government parties is holding steady while Sinn Féin has slumped since the spring, according to the latest Irish Times/Ipsos B&A opinion poll.
There is a substantial increase in support for Independents since the last poll in April, the figures show.
As economic threats loom for the Coalition from US tariffs and concerns about the multinational sector, the Government parties show little movement in support since April.
The state of the parties, when undecided voters and those unlikely to vote are excluded, is: Fianna Fáil on 22 per cent (no change), Sinn Féin on 22 per cent (down four), and Fine Gael on 17 per cent (up one).
RM Block
The comparisons are with the previous Irish Times poll, published last April 16th.
Among the smaller parties, the Social Democrats party is at 6 per cent (down one), Labour is on 4 per cent (down one), the Green Party is at 3 per cent (no change), People Before Profit-Solidarity is on 2 per cent (down one) and Aontú is on 2 per cent (up one). Independents/others are at 22 per cent (up five), a figure that includes the Independent Ireland party.
Undecided voters – who are excluded from the above figures – are at 25 per cent, a sharp increase of six points since April.
Satisfaction with the Government is steady, at 36 per cent, while Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin remains the most popular party leader, with a 44 per cent satisfaction rating, down by one point.
However, Tánaiste and Fine Gael leader Simon Harris slips down by four points to 38 per cent. He is just in advance of Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, who sees a marginal one-point decline to 36 per cent.
Despite the polling numbers holding up for the Government parties, the public has little sense that they are getting to grips with the State’s problems.
Asked if the Government is “making progress at tackling the problems facing the country”, 30 per cent said they believe progress has “stalled”, while 53 per cent said the “problems are getting worse”. Just 14 per cent of respondents said the Government is “making progress”.
Even among Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael voters, there was not a majority of respondents who believed the Government is making progress in tackling the difficulties.
Nonetheless, the numbers are likely to come as a relief to the Coalition parties, especially to Fine Gael which had seen a series of sharp declines in support throughout the general election campaign last November and into the new year. The last poll showed the party had dropped to a level not seen in 30 years. That steady fall has now been arrested, and even slightly recovered, though the party remains behind Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil.
Sinn Féin will be less happy with the results. Its support jumped in the wake of the general election and the formation of Government, but has fallen back substantially today. Mary Lou McDonald has the lowest satisfaction rating of all the main party leaders.
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The poll was conducted among a representative sample of adults aged 18 years and upwards across 120 sampling points throughout all constituencies.
Unlike most other opinion polls, The Irish Times/Ipsos B&A series is conducted through face-to-face sampling. Personal in-home interviewing took place on July 14th and 15th. There were 1,200 interviews conducted and the accuracy is estimated at plus or minus 2.8 per cent.
