White in line to take seat for Greens, poll shows
The Red C poll for the Nationalist and for Thomas Crosbie Holdings (TCH) indicates that support for the Green Party’s deputy leader has shot up since the 2002 elections from 8% to 12%.
She is in a strong position to take the fourth seat in the five-seat constituency, it concludes.
The poll shows that Fianna Fáil is likely to retain its three seats with Bobby Aylward topping the poll with 20% support and John McGuinness seeing his support marginally rise to 16%.
The third Fianna Fáil candidate, the Carlow-based MJ Nolan is on 10%, a drop of four points from 2002, but the Red C poll suggests he will steal the last seat.
If the poll findings are repeated on election day, it will mean a net gain for the Greens and a net loss for Labour. The latter’s TD Seamus Pattison is retiring. He was elected automatically in 2002 having served as Ceann Comhairle.
The two Labour candidates, Jim Townsend (7%) and Michael O’Brien (5%) have a combined 12% of the votes but, according to the pollsters, at least some of the transfers will be picked up by Ms White.
The other two Fine Gael candidates John Paul Phelan (9%) and Fergal Browne (6%) will struggle to attract enough transfers to edge out Mr Nolan for the last seat.
The poll was conducted among a sample of 501 people. Face-to-face interviews were conducted and mock ballot papers were used. They included the names of all the declared candidates including the PDs and Sinn Féin.
This poll gives the first tangible evidence in a specific constituency of the upsurge in support for the Green Party, already reflected in national polls. It is now expected that the Greens will return at least 10 TDs to the 30th Dáil.
This poll is the first in a series of regional opinion polls that Red C will conduct across TCH’s regional titles and the Evening Echo in the run-up to the General Election.
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