Voters favour rainbow partners
On an effectiveness rating of one to ten, a Fine Gael/Labour administration scored 5.3.
When the Greens are added to the mix, the three party alternative commands a rating of 5.
Though slightly lower, that figure still leaves it level-pegging with the current Fianna Fail/Progressive Democrat coalition, according to the Irish Examiner/Lansdowne poll.
Even among those satisfied with the present Government, an FG/Labour stewardship gets an effectiveness rating of 5.
The survey makes it clear that Fianna Fail’s attempts to paint the rainbow parties as a danger to the nation’s future prosperity have fallen on deaf ears.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has used recent speeches to attack the performance of previous Fine Gael/Labour administrations.
He remarked earlier this month that a rainbow government “would have us back in the Third World in jig time”.
The relatively low rankings for any potential government combination point to intense voter dissatisfaction at the choices available to them.
Fianna Fail hooking up with either Labour or the group of Dáil independents after the next election would garner an effectiveness score of 4.9 from all voters.
A FF/Green pact only gets a 4.3 rating and a Fianna Fail/Sinn Fein deal is seen as least effective at 4.1.
