An Irish Times/Ipsos survey has found that support for Independent candidates has jumped 4 percentage points to 20%, while Fine Gael still leads on 25% support despite a 2% drop. Aontú saw its support rise 2% in the poll while Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin are both on 19%.
That was after excluding undecided voters who fell by four points to 16 per cent.
With just two weeks to go to the vote, the Irish Times poll found that Fine Gael is on 25 per cent support, with its biggest rivals amongst the parties – Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin – both on 19 per cent, with no change for the former while the latter fell 1 point.
The poll also found that the largest jump in support was for Independent candidates who increased their share of the vote from 16 to 20 percent.
This includes support for the new Independent Ireland party, which is formally registered as a political party, but which many voters think of as coming under the broader Independent umbrella, the Irish Times said.
Aontú was at 3 per cent (up two), while the Green Party was down two at 3 per cent, Labour came in at 5 per cent, down one point and the Social Democrats remained unchanged at 4 per cent, as did People Before Profit/Solidarity at 2 per cent.
Fine Gael’s Simon Harris remains the most popular party leader, with a satisfaction rating of 50 per cent, though this represents a sharp drop of five points since the last poll. The Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin is on 45 per cent (down two) while Mary Lou McDonald of Sinn Féin improves marginally to 31 per cent.
Roderic O’Gorman of the Green Party is up four to 21 per cent, while the Government as a whole drops marginally to 39 per cent, the Irish Times said.
Cost of living was cited most often as the issue that will have the most influence on voter decision vote, being nominated by 30 per cent of respondents in the poll.
Next on the list was health (18 per cent) and house prices (17 per cent), followed by immigration (9 per cent), the economy (6 per cent), the cost of rent (6 per cent), law and order (5 per cent), climate (4 per cent) and tax (3 per cent).
60 per cent of respondents said the government should reduce spending in revenues fell. while 14 per cent said to increase borrowing and 12 per cent preferred raising taxes.
The poll was conducted among a representative sample of adults aged 18 years and upwards across 120 sampling points throughout all constituencies.
Unlike most other opinion polls, The Irish Times/Ipsos B&A series is conducted through face-to-face sampling; personal in-home interviewing took place on November 12th and 13th. The total number of interviews conducted was 1,200. The accuracy is estimated at plus or minus 2.8 per cent.