Irish Times poll
Harry McGee
Full details of the latest TNS mrbi opinion poll for The Irish Times will be published in the morning.
The headline figures were released tonight.
Everybody expected a Fianna Fail bounce. Since September they have steered through NAMA and a more ascetic budget that Mac the Knife’s effort in 1987. There is also the sympathy factor following the disclosure of Brian Lenihan’s grave medical condition. On the downside, the Government was a bit cack-handed in handling the severe weather conditions.
But still, you expected a bit of a lift from the nadir figures from2009.
2010 isn’t look too hot for them in terms of electoral recovery. The bounce, such as it was, was of a concrete block being thrown into a river.
Here are the full figures.
Fianna Fail: 22 (up 2)
Fine Gael: 32 (up 1)
Labour: 24 (down 1)
Greens: 3 (down 1)
Sinn Fein: 8 (down 1)
Others: 11 (unchanged)
Cowen’s saisfaction rating is up a little at 26 points. Yet only 19 per cent approve of the Government’s performance while a staggering (yep, an overused superlative) 76 per cent disapprove.
Fianna Fail were down in the low thirties at this stage of teh 2002 to 2007 cycle. They recovered. Even if they recover this time it’s not looking good.
