Three quarters of voters, when asked by the Irish Times which political issues they were taking note of at the moment, said immigration and housing. The vast majority of those voters – 76% of those who mentioned the issues – also said that they had formed a negative opinion of the Government’s performance on both issues. When you do the sums, that works out at about 57% of the voting public who’ve both ranked immigration and housing as their two top issues, and expressed the view that Government is performing negatively on those two issues. Despite that, most of the public polling shows that were the General Election held today, the Government – or at least the two largest parties within it – would be returned to office, likely with additional seats.
Immigration and housing are, of course, linked: It is a simple matter of mathematics to note that the more people you have in the country, the more homes you need, or else people will end up living in tents by the side of the road. Nevertheless, the Government is eager to divorce the two issues, pretending that immigration and housing are entirely separate. Most people, I suspect, see through this – which is one reason why the two issues are increasingly polling together, with almost identical numbers of voters expressing concerns about both.
This article is premium content
Get unlimited access to Gript
Support Gript and get exclusive content, full archives and an ad-free experience
Subscribe
Already a member? Sign in here