Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin surge on

FIANNA FÁIL’S fortunes have dramatically turned a corner, while Sinn Féin’s unrelenting rise in popularity continues unabated, the latest opinion polls show.

The year's first survey of political popularity reveals that satisfaction ratings for the Government and the Taoiseach have risen by a whopping 11%. However, worryingly for the two main opposition parties, Fine Gael and Labour are failing to make headway as their support has dropped in recent months, according to the TNS/MRBI opinion poll, published in today's Irish Times.

Sinn Féin's steady rise will particularly concern the Labour Party, which is seen as its most obvious rival in working class areas. Significantly, while Gerry Adams' party's support has risen by 2% to 12%, Pat Rabbitte's party is down by a commensurate 2% to 17%.

Fianna Fáil's minor recovery, with a 3% rise to 33%, is eclipsed by the resurgence in the popularity of the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, whose popularity rating has risen to 47% up by 11 points since last September.

Equally the Government's satisfaction rating is up by 11%, and stands at 38%, but dissatisfaction still stands at 55%, down 12 points, while 7% had no opinion.

Just four months short of the crucial local and European elections, the timing could not be better for Fianna Fáil to stage a recovery, after a series of battering opinion poll results. Nevertheless, its performance is well off the pre-2002 high.

While FF are recovering, their coalition partners, the Progressive Democrats, suffered a major drop in support, with a 2% decrease, leaving the party standing at only 3% support. In contrast, Tánaiste Mary Harney's satisfaction rating went up 4% to 44%.

A notable feature of the poll is that all party leaders benefited from a rise in their satisfaction rating. However, more than 18 months after the general election, the main opposition parties are struggling to land punches on the Government.

The opinion poll was conducted last Monday and Tuesday and is the first since last September.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny can only take a modicum of comfort from a modest rise of 2% in his own performance rating of 31%, however, his party continue to languish at just 21%, after going down by 1%. The drop in support comes after a period when Fine Gael insiders believed the party had regained the momentum lost after the 2002 general election disaster.

Providing encouragement for Labour is Pat Rabbitte's personal satisfaction rating rising by 5% to 48% making him the most popular leader in Dáil Éireann. Yet Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams retains the highest rating of all leaders at 51%, up eight.

His party's predictions of making further significant electoral gains in this Summer's elections will be boosted by this morning's results showing no slowdown in Sinn Féin's growth. The Green Party recorded a one point rise, bringing it to 5%, while its leader Trevor Sargent went up five point to 35%.