Sir, – The detailed regional and demographic breakdown of your Irish Times/ Ipsos MRBI opinion poll is truly extraordinary, and may well be without precedent in 40 years of opinion polling by your newspaper (Home News, June 16th).
Fine Gael has double the support of Fianna Fáil in Leinster; three times the support of Fianna Fáil in that party’s heartland of Munster; 50 per cent support from the over-65s compared to 18 per cent for Fianna Fáil; and 36 per cent among unskilled workers, ahead of Fianna Fáil on 12 per cent and even well ahead even of Sinn Féin who draw most of their vote from this category.
Strong support from each of these regions and demographic groups has been the bedrock of Fianna Fáil since it was founded, and formed a bulwark which prevented it from being wiped out entirely in 2011.
If these poll numbers were to be replicated at a general election, Fine Gael would be in touching distance of an overall majority. Not only would it lead to a fourth successive rejection of Micheál Martin by the electorate, but the collapse of its support in these traditional heartlands would almost certainly lead to the end of Fianna Fáil as a political force.
And yet in spite of all this, for some bizarre reason, the wheels are in motion to install Mr Martin as Taoiseach for the next two years.
If this farcical situation had been submitted as a plotline for Yes, Prime Minister, it would have been rejected as being too ridiculous and an insult to the intelligence of viewers. Yet it is being presented to us, with a straight face, as the answer to all our national problems.
The Irish people deserve better than this, and as your opinion poll shows, they’re demanding it. – Yours, etc,
BARRY WALSH,
Dublin 3.