Only 25% have faith in opposition fiscal policy

ONLY a quarter of voters have confidence in the opposition parties’ economic plans despite Fianna Fáil support falling to a record low, an opinion poll revealed.

Though likely post-election Government partners Fine Gael and Labour command the support of almost six out of 10 voters, only 25% express confidence in the alternative administration’s ability to handle the financial crisis.

However, the finding will come as scant comfort to the Taoiseach as Fianna Fáil slumped to just 18% in the Red C poll – a fall of 6% on last month – which leaves it trailing a distant third, sparking fresh murmurs about Brian Cowen’s leadership.

Enda Kenny’s grip on Fine Gael was strengthened though, as his party climbed one point to stand at 32%. Labour surged 4% to 27% and Sinn Féin dipped one point to 9%, the Greens upped one to 4% and Independents climbed one to 10%, according to the tracker poll in the Sunday Business Post.

With a general election edging ever closer, voters are expressing increasing demands for Fine Gael and Labour to give more details on how they would deal with the deficit, with 55% saying they want greater clarity and explanation from the alternative government.

Some 43% said they did not have confidence in the FG/Labour plans and 32% did not know what the alternative was, in a clear signal the opposition was failing to provide a credible alternative.

Children’s Minister Barry Andrews insisted FF is more popular than the poll shows.

“It is obviously a very disappointing opinion poll result for us. Being honest about it, I think we are probably in the 20s, as the most recent opinion poll before that indicated. But it obviously means losses at the next election for us,” he told RTÉ.

The snapshot survey is the first to be taken since it was revealed on “Black Thursday” that the cost of the bank bail-out could top €50bn – with Anglo Irish alone accounting for €34.3bn of that – and since it emerged the amount of cuts and tax rises needed over the next four years to bring the deficit down to the EU-agreed level is €15bn – twice the previous estimate.

The impact of the bad economic news has clearly had a major impact on FF support which, after remaining steady at around 24% for most of the year, has dropped to the lowest support recorded on the monthly tracker survey as the country braces itself for what is likely to be a savage Budget on December 7.

The survey showed that 45% want public services to take the brunt of the “correction” needed in cuts, with 33% favouring the burden being put on taxpayers instead.

Fine Gael and Labour seemed to have escaped any blame for the collapse of “consensus” talks with the Government – a Green idea which may have boosted that party’s standing in the poll. Gloom over the economic outlook showed 60% expect no improvement in the next year, with 20% saying it would pick up, the same level as those who did not know.