Three in four voters dissatisfied with Government

Three in four voters are dissatisfied with the Government’s performance, an opinion poll has indicated.

But there is good news for Fianna Fáil, whose recovery is continuing and who are now the second largest party in the State — although still a long way off their historic levels of support.

The poll shows that 73% of voters are dissatisfied with the Government, compared with 21% satisfied and 6% who did not express an opinion.

At party level, many of the changes are within the poll’s 3% margin of error, suggesting the political outlook is reasonably stable.

Fine Gael are down one point to 31% since the corresponding Ipsos MRBI poll last May.

Labour are up two points to 12%.

Fianna Fáil are up four points to 21%, putting them narrowly ahead of Sinn Féin, who are down four to 20%.

The Green Party was unchanged at 2%, while Independents and others were down one point to 14%.

While Fianna Fáil will be pleased with the outcome, they are still running at just half the level of support they secured in the 2007 and 2002 general elections.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny remains the most popular party leader, but both he and his counterparts have all seen their approval ratings fall.

Mr Kenny is down three points to 33%, while Tánaiste and Labour leader Eamon Gilmore is similarly down three to 23%.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin is down three to 28%, while Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams is down eight to 29%.

The poll was conducted for the Irish Times on Monday and Tuesday of this week amongst a representative sample of 1,000 voters across the country.