Fianna Fáil has to 'reassert' after poll puts party 15 points behind Sinn Féin

Former agriculture minister and Offaly TD Barry Cowen said a greater level of focus will now come on Sinn Féin and people will see they are a 'high-tax' party. File picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins

It is time for Fianna Fáil to reassert itself and “stick our chests out again” after a new poll put the party 15 points behind Sinn Féin, a leading TD has said.

The latest Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll shows Sinn Féin has extended its lead over Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil to record levels.

Support for Sinn Féin is up three points to 35% since the last poll in October, putting it 15 points ahead of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, with both at 20%.

Reacting to the poll, former agriculture minister and Offaly TD Barry Cowen said a greater level of focus will now come on Sinn Féin and people will see they are a “high-tax” party.

“There is a lot of time between now and then, there are a lot of promises that will come under scrutiny. They will set out to increase income taxes, car taxes and many more. When people concentrate on that, people will move their vote elsewhere and perhaps back to Fianna Fáil,” he said.

He said it was a harder sell for Fine Gael to put a case forward given they are in power for 10 years.

“We have to reassert ourselves and stick our chests out. We as Fianna Fáil have to differentiate ourselves and show we are solid and dependable on matters like housing. We have to cut the red tape in housing, in trying to fix it we have made it almost unachievable and climate change plans have to be real on the ground,” he said.

Asked did he think the low party rating was because of fatigue around Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Mr Cowen said: “He is our Taoiseach, mightn’t be my cup of tea but the meeting in Cavan reasserted his leadership. When the time comes when he decides what he wants to do, hopefully, we as the party can agree and then move on.”

'Everyone is tired of Covid'

Commenting on its slump from 37% in June 2020 to 20% now, a Fine Gael spokesman told the Irish Examiner: “In terms of polls, it is mid-term and we understand that everyone is tired of Covid. 

There is no general election due for three years, there’s lots of time recover and in the meantime, Sinn Féin’s lack of policies and the threadbare nature of its populist politics will become more and more obvious.”

Fine Gael TD for Cork North Central Colm Burke said at the mid-term point, the opposition has “answers for everything”.

Trying to explain the poor result for his party, Mr Burke said: “The problem is there is a big focus on negativity, we need to bring balance to that.”

The state of the parties, when undecided voters and those unlikely to vote are excluded, is as follows: Sinn Féin 35% (up three); Fine Gael 20% (down two); Fianna Fáil 20% (no change); Green Party 5% (down two); Labour 4% (no change); and Independents/others 15% (up three). Among the Independents and smaller parties, the results are as follows: Social Democrats 2% (down one); Solidarity-People Before Profit 2 % (no change); Aontú 1 % (no change).