Taoiseach dismisses 1% advantage in poll

RESULTS of a new opinion poll which showed the Government just 1% ahead of the alternative coalition were yesterday dismissed by the Taoiseach.

Bertie Ahern said there had been a variance in levels of support for all parties since a similar opinion poll was conducted last week.

And as his party almost slipped off the opinion poll radar, Tánaiste Michael McDowell yesterday rounded on PD naysayers.

“We will see who is left standing when the ballot papers are counted,” he said.

An MRBI poll showed the PDs down at a perilous 1% from 3%.

Despite the slump, Mr McDowell, speaking to journalists at a graduation ceremony at the Garda College in Templemore predicted the PDs would return to the next Dáil with 10 seats or more.

He directed a fierce attack on the big winners in yesterday’s poll, the Greens.

He dismissed what he described as their “chicken little” approach to politics.

McDowell also warned that if the mantle were to pass to the Green Party, it would prove to be a “catastrophic error.”

Citing the Green Party’s plans to increase corporation tax from 12% to 16%,

increase capital gains tax and impose a land value tax in order to raise 2billion per annum, Mr McDowell said the country would slip into a “mini-slump of a substantial kind” if the Greens are elected to Government.

The Tánaiste insisted that the party’s 1% showing would not signal the end of the current coalition Government and would instead galvanise party support.

“I wouldn’t in any way just ignore this poll or say we aren’t concerned about it. Of course we are. We don’t own people’s votes; we don’t own people’s seats either. We will go out there, roll up our sleeves and make our play for the confidence of the Irish people,” he said.

Mr McDowell said his party had always been subjected to gloom and doom predictions.

Mr McDowell said: “At every election I have been told I will lose my seat and my party will be wiped out. My aim is to get the Progressive Democrats into double digits in the next Dáil.

The Green Party later accused the Tánaiste of “resorting to misinformation to restore his party’s sagging reputation.”

Responding to the poll results showing the Green Party’s support doubling from 4% to 8%, leader Trevor Sargent said the party would only negotiate with parties after the general election.

The TNS MRBI poll, showing the Labour/Fine Gael coalition neck and neck with the Fianna Fáil and the PDs, was welcomed by the Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny as indicative of the mood for change.

He said the party’s 26% support was the highest percentage it had achieved in a January poll in five years.