Sinn Féin staring at two-year polling decline but it’s harder than ever to predict make-up of next Dáil
Earlier this year, after being pushed on Sinn Féin’s polling “slump” during a media outing on the Leinster House plinth, one member of the party’s front bench quipped to journalists afterwards that it was still a “slump to first ”. Well, on the evidence of today’s Irish Times poll, even that comfort is no longer available. It is hard to escape the five-point drop for the main opposition party as the main talking point.
For Fine Gael, the poll is a welcome fillip – its strongest since Simon Harris was elected, with voters not so far demonstrating a boundless enthusiasm for the new man. It will encourage him to press ahead with his “back to basics” approach on migration, business, law and order and other policies.
While this Government and this Dáil has done the vast majority of the things it will do before the next election, the polls indicate something is shifting in the electorate – it is telling the political class that nothing about its mood should be taken for granted. That underlying volatility is making it harder than ever to predict the composition of the next Dáil.
At the committees, the Public Accounts Committee holds its weekly meeting at 9.30am reviewing education matters – including school transport, building programmes and the disposal of assets by religious orders.
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