Government must act swiftly to turn back tide over Irish Water

OUR establishment politicians are now held so low in the public’s estimation that voters appear to favour a party led by a man who has been mired in rape and child abuse controversies and has outstanding questions to answer on both.

How low can you go? That seems to be the current motto for the Fine Gael/Labour Government as it lurches deeper and deeper into crisis. We are not (yet) in the realms of the last days of Brian Cowen’s government, yet we are in extraordinary political territory. It feels as if this Government may possibly be gone beyond the tipping point; that they are held in such derision by the large sections of the population they could find it exceptionally difficult, if not impossible, to rescue the situation.

We saw last Sunday in the latest Millward Brown poll how Sinn Féin is the now most popular party in the State. Support for that party was at 26%, four percentage points ahead of Fine Gael at 22%. Support for Gerry Adams’ party was up four percentage points since the last such poll for the Sunday Independent in September, despite the Maíria Cahill controversy.