Irish Examiner view: The trouble with numbers is that they are prone to change

With Budget 2025 on the way and the air heavy with talk of a general election, recent polls here — and events in the US and Britain too — might concentrate the minds of the Coalition

Taoiseach Simon Harris might desire more of a cushion in the polls before he decides to go to the country. Picture: Cillian Sherlock/PA

If the opinion polls are to be accepted and, ahead of what is being trailed as a generous personal and investment Budget 2025 on Tuesday, it might seem an ideal moment for Taoiseach Simon Harris to break cover and call a general election.

Sinn Féin has apparently fallen back, and support for Fianna Fáil looks soggy. What analysts like to describe as ‘Big Mo’ — political momentum — appears, for now anyway, to be with Fine Gael.