New poll predicts Government TDs losing two seats in Clare

A new poll for the Clare constituency has predicted Government TDs losing two of their three seats.

Fri, 19 Feb, 2016 - 00:00

Gordon Deegan

In a shake-up of the four-seat constituency, The Clare Champion poll has Noeleen Moran of Sinn Féin causing an upset to take one of the seats, with ‘No Doctor, No Village’ Independent candidate Michael Harty also taking a seat.

It forecasts that Fine Gael TD Joe Carey and Labour TD Michael McNamara will lose out but that Fine Gael’s Pat Breen and Fianna Fáil’s Timmy Dooley will keep their seats.

The poll had a sample of 660 electors and was carried out for The Clare Champion by the marketing department of Limerick Institute of Technology. It was collected at 14 points across the constituency last weekend.

The poll has Dr Harty winning 12% of first preferences. He said: “The poll is very encouraging, but we are not in any way complacent.”

Dr Harty said his campaign has around 25 GPs knocking on doors “almost every night” across the county. He said: “What we are saying about the need for a rural revolution is hitting a chord.”

The poll has sitting Fine Gael TD Joe Carey in sixth place with 6.13% of the vote. He yesterday dismissed the poll as “unreliable”.

“I don’t trust the results of this poll as the methodology used wouldn’t be up to the standard used by professional polling companies and is at odds with the reception I am getting on the doorsteps,” said Mr Carey.

Mr McNamara is in fifth position with 8.74% of first preferences. “I know I have a fight on my hands to continue to represent the people of Clare but I’m more interested in next week’s poll,” he said. “I may be on the ropes but I’ve never been knocked down. The people of Clare know that I have plenty of fight left as the bell rings for the last round.”

A Sinn Féin spokesperson said: ”This poll shows that the people of Clare have an appetite for change, change from the two-tier recovery and stale politics of the past.

“And these polls are being replicated right across the country. Sinn Féin are committed to a fairer recovery and Noeleen Moran can help deliver that for Clare.”