A new poll by Red C has found that 72% of Irish people believe there should be “very strict limits on the number of immigrants coming to live in Ireland”, while more than a fifth of voters believe politicians support increased immigration to bring in “obedient voters” who will support them in future elections.
In addition, only a third of those polled agreed that politicians were trustworthy, while some 51% said that “special interests/ lobbyists/NGOs have too much influence on legislation” with just 12% disagreeing.
The poll, carried out on behalf of the behalf of the Electoral Commission after the June 6th elections polled 3,045 respondents and asked questions around immigration, trust in the political system, corruption , the possibility of a united Ireland, and other issues.
72% of respondents also believed that the government had “lost control of immigration”: with 75% of women agreeing with that statement as opposed to 69% of men . Support for that statement was highest amongst Independent Ireland voters at 86%, amongst other Independent voters at 83% and Aontú at 82%, while 79% of Sinn Féin supporters agreed. However, for Green Party voters just 47% of voters who supported the statement.
Greater disparity was recorded in relation to the statement that “Refugees from conflict zones should be welcomed into Ireland”. A majority of people, some 58% overall, agreed with the statement, but just 26% of Independent Ireland voters did.
Similarly, in regard to European integration, while 45% agreed overall that “it has gone too far” (with 27% disagreeing), just 16% of Social Democrat voters believed that to be the case, while 66% of Aontú voters agreed.
When asked if they agreed with the statement that “my community would suffer if it were to house international protection applicants”, a significant difference was observed in voters according to social and economic class, with just 38% of more well-off voters agreeing, while 47% of others believing the statement to be true. Overall, 45% agreed with the statement, while 28% disagreed and 20% neither agreed nor disagreed and 9% said Don’t Know.
A strong majority of those polled agreed with the statement that “The government keeps many important secrets from the public” – with 59% of all adults asked agreeing they believed that to be the case.
Source: neds.ie
In this section of questions, entitled Conspiracy Theory Battery, the poll showed that 22% of respondents agreed with both of the following statements: “Elected officials want more immigration to bring in obedient voters who will vote for them” and “The establishment is replacing white Irish people with nonwhite immigrants”.
Source: neds.ie
The poll also showed that trust in RTÉ and newspapers as an information source for the local elections was almost twice as high for Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael voters (47% and 48%) as for Sinn Féin or Independent voters (25% in both cases), while trust in online sites (The Journal and Gript) was slightly higher for Sinn Féin and Independents (17% and 16% respectively) than for Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael (both 13%).
The Red C poll found that the same percentage of people said they would consider themselves on the left (28%) and right (28%) of the political spectrum, while 31% said they were centrists.
In relation to political trust, only 34% of those polled agreed that politicians were trustworthy (while 43% disagreed); some 51% said that “special interests/ lobbyists/NGOs have too much influence on legislation” with just 12% disagreeing; and a huge majority (56%) agreed that “most politicians only care about the interests of the rich and powerful, more than twice those who disagreed at 23%.