O'Cuiv: Is FF a republican party or an upper middle-class one?

Fianna Fáil TD Eamon O'Cuiv has said his party's strategy is wrong.

The former deputy leader of the party was reacting to the latest

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The poll has Fine Gael and Sinn Féin on an equal footing at 24% and Labour on 9%.

Deputy O'Cuiv said his party had some hard choices to make and had to examine its strategy to decide if they still follow republican ideals or if they are a middle or upper middle-class party.

When asked whether the party's current strategy was wrong, he said: "Oh yeah, absolutely yes. I think we have to keep looking at our party strategy and we have to re-affirm are we the party that are a republican party that stands for republican ideals - in its widest sense - or are we an upper-middle class party?"

"I think we have some hard choices to make."

Mr O'Cuiv also said the republican vote in Ireland had split between his party and Sinn Féin.

"The interesting thing is that the Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin vote added together is consistently around 40%-44%, which is exactly the average Fianna Fáil achieved from its foundation.

"What has happened is the republican votes has spilt between Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin."