Young voters set to buck the trend and vote Labour

YOUNG voters are planning to vote against national trends in next week’s general election — boosting Labour’s popularity but shying away from Fine Gael.

Independents, the Green Party and other small parties also have significantly more pull with under-35s than with the electorate as a whole, with Fianna Fáil’s decline in popularity even more pronounced among the young.

The findings come from an Irish Examiner-Red C poll of 18 to 34-year-olds carried out during the week ending last Tuesday, which questioned a broad section of under-35s on their voting intentions, interest in politics and the impact of the economic situation on their lives.