Election letter: Farmers’ support for Fine Gael not covered

I have to say I was fairly shocked to read last saturday’s edition of the Irish Examiner. I’ve been following the newspaper’s coverage of the election so far with huge interest.

However I was let down by your coverage on Saturday. In both the pages dedicated to the general election and in the Forum section, not one mention was given to the fact that Fine Gael had garnered greater than 50% support in a Red C/Farmer’s Journal poll. Surely even this is worth reporting in mainstream media, considering you were more than happy to quote an earlier poll from Red C/Irish Sun with a 26% support for Fine Gael?

What’s more shocking is the forum piece, written by your political editor Daniel McConnell, in which even he neglected to mention this poll, which showed support for both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil although put Sinn Fein at 5%.

I’ll make no bones of the fact that I will be voting Fine Gael. I’m a young, soon to be, graduate (hopefully) from a rural area.

Technically I should hate the Government parties due to the price I’ve had to pay for going to college, rent, difficulty getting a part time job etc. However, I don’t. I know they had a hell of a tough job to do, and to be perfectly honest, even with a few mistakes along the way, they’ve done OK in my books.

I dread to think what would happen to rural Ireland, agriculture and the flourishing agri-food industry should the likes of Sinn Féin or the other left wing parties rise to power. Not to mind foreign direct investment.

Brian O’Regan

Shanballymore

Cork