Support for Sinn Féin falls 2% in latest poll

THE Sinn Féin slide in support is confirmed in a second national poll, published today.

Fallout from the Robert McCartney murder and alleged IRA involvement in the Northern Bank robbery is impacting on the republican party.

Support for Sinn Féin in the latest Irish Times-TNS-Mrbi poll fell by 2% since the end of January.

The poll was conducted on Monday and Tuesday and concurred strongly with an Irish Independent weekend poll that also showed a slight decline for Sinn Féin.

The new poll shows Sinn Féin at 9%, down from 11%, while the two major parties Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael remain unchanged at 38% and 22%, respectively.

Fianna Fáil’s coalition partner, the PDs, slipped by one point to 3%.

The poll, carried out in all constituencies, was confined solely to the state of the parties.

The Labour Party, with 12%, is down one per cent while the Green Party support remains unchanged at 4%. Support for Others is up 4% to 12%.

On the positive side, Sinn Féin will claim that both polls showed 9% in support - which, effectively, is up 2% from the 2002 General Election.

The party has taken a battering for the past eight weeks and, despite continuing bad publicity, Sinn Féin has argued that the slide is not significantly damaging.

Party leader Gerry Adams admitted he was disappointed at a heavy drop in his own satisfaction rating with the public, following last week’s poll.

The new poll shows most voters appeared to remain satisfied, rather than dissatisfied with the Government parties.

Fianna Fáil, in particular, which experienced a backlash in late 2002 and suffered losses in the local and European elections last year, has weathered the political storms. Party leader support was an issue in the latest opinion poll.

However, the weekend poll showed Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to be the most popular party leader, at 61%, while Mr Adams’s popularity plummeted a full 20 points to 31%.

Fianna Fáil is likely to take a huge vote of confidence from both polls, which shows firm public backing for the Taoiseach’s stewardship of the economy and the manner in which he handled the peace process.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny will be pleased support has stabilised and his own popularity continues to progress at a slow, but steady, pace.

Such momentum is not enjoyed by the PDs with both party and leader Mary Harney’s support dipping.