A large majority of people who voted for Independent candidates would have cast their ballot for them even if they were running for a political party, according to the results of the election day exit poll.
Some 70 per cent of respondents who gave their first preference to an Independent said they would still have backed them if the person had been involved in party politics.
Overall, just more than half of people surveyed in the election day exit poll, 52 per cent, said they would have voted for their first preference candidate even if they were running for another party.
The results indicate that the identity of the candidate is slightly more important than the political party they represent when Irish people come to choosing who to vote for.
Forty-seven per cent said they would have voted for someone else had their first preference candidate in the election run for a different party.
The highest proportion of people who indicated they would remain loyal to a party over a candidate were those who voted for the Green Party.
Eighty per cent of these voters would have chosen someone else had the candidate been in a different party.
The next highest block of supporters who answered in the same way were people whose first preferences went to the Social Democrats – 63 per cent.
Sixty-two per cent of Sinn Féin voters said they would have voted for someone else had their chosen candidate not been in the party.
In contrast, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael voters were more inclined to prioritise the candidate over the party.
Sixty-five per cent of Fianna Fáil voters said they still would have voted for the person had they been in a different party.
The corresponding figure for those who gave first preferences to Fine Gael was 60 per cent.
Of those who voted for the new Independent Ireland party, 46 per cent said they would have voted for the same candidate if they had been in another party.
In terms of how different age groups responded to the question, 59 per cent of over-65s said they would have backed the same person if they had run for a different party.
In contrast, 58 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds said they would have voted for someone else had their preferred candidate been in a different party.
The poll, which is a joint project of The Irish Times, RTÉ, TG4 and the Political Science Department of Trinity College Dublin, was conducted by Ipsos B&A among 5018 voters as they left 253 polling stations across all 43 constituencies on Friday.
EXIT POLL: What do the results mean for government formation?
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