The Coalition parties should be well satisfied with the results of today's Irish Times/TNSmrbi opinion poll. Public support for the Government, Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats has held solid over the past six weeks despite the confluence of events challenging the credentials of the peace process.
The level of satisfaction with the Government has dropped by only one percentage point in a period dominated by public debate about the Northern Bank robbery, the seizures of sterling bank notes and the discovery of money-laundering operations on this side of the Border, along with the grassroots campaign to bring the murderers of Robert McCartney to justice.
There has been a drop in personal ratings for the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and a more significant decrease for the Tánaiste Mary Harney in the wake of the Supreme Court judgment on the treatment of pensioners in State-run institutions. However, none of the Opposition leaders has fared particularly well either.
The main finding of today's opinion poll, conducted six weeks after the last Irish Times/TNSmrbi survey, is that Sinn Féin has been damaged by the republican movement's association with recent criminal events. The support for the president of Sinn Féin, Gerry Adams, has dropped to 30 per cent, down 12 percentage points in such a short period. This is Mr Adams's lowest rating since his name was recorded in opinion polls.
The intense scrutiny of Sinn Féin also seems to be taking its toll on the party, with its support dropping by two percentage points to 9 per cent in the past six weeks alone.
This decline could seem fairly mundane, within the margin of error, were it not for the unrelenting and united pressure coming from all democratic parties to end criminal and paramilitary activity for good. There is evidence of a downward trend in Sinn Féin's support over three opinion polls since the failure of the Northern talks last autumn.
The real test, however, will come in the Meath byelection next Friday where their candidate secured 9 per cent of first preference votes in the last general election.
Fine Gael leader, Enda Kenny, should be pleased that he has gained one percentage point in his popularity rating with a high profile on law-and-order issues in recent weeks. He will be disappointed that the party's support base seems fixed around 22 per cent, the same as in the last general election.
The more disturbing finding for the proposed alternative government, however, is the downward trend in support for the Labour Party since the autumn of 2003. It is difficult to decipher why Labour's support would drop by a further point in the past six weeks.
But there is no escaping the overall finding that the Government combination is a full seven points ahead of the alternative coalition between Fine Gael, Labour and the Greens.