Political opinion poll - Mood for change is in the air

It was somewhat disingenuous of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to express surprise at the results of the latest public opinion poll, because they should be enough to shake the Government from any complacency it may labour under.

What emerged strongly is that people now begin to believe that there may be a real alternative to it at the next general election.

That is possibly the most important factor to emerge from the Irish Times/TNS MRBI poll which put the putative Fine Gael-Labour Party coalition an agreeable nine points ahead of the ruling Fianna Fáil-PD administration.