The Fianna Fáil-PD coalition has established a lead of 5 percentage points over the alternative government of Fine Gael and Labour, with the possible support of the Greens, according to the TNS mrbi opinion poll conducted for The Irish Times.
Asked which of these alternatives they would like to see forming the next government, 36 per cent opted for the current Coalition, while 31 per cent supported the alternative.
A further 18 per cent said they would not support either, while 15 per cent had no opinion.
This represents a significant shift since the last Irish Times poll in May. At that stage the Fine Gael-led alternative was ahead with 36 per cent, compared with 32 per cent for the Government.
Asked about the issues that would be their top priority in deciding how to vote, the need to improve public services such as health, transport and education was away ahead of all others, with 56 per cent giving it top priority.
The next most important issue was the continued success of the economy, far behind on 13 per cent. It was followed by crime on 12 per cent, waste of public expenditure on 9 per cent, and the need to keep taxes low at just 6 per cent.
When they were asked to rate the alternative coalitions in terms of how they would deal with six major issues, the Fianna Fáil-PD coalition was ahead on five of them.
The one issue on which the alternative coalition was ahead was improving the quality of the health services, with 31 per cent saying it would be better compared to 27 per cent who opted for the Fianna Fáil-PD coalition. On the provision of better childcare they were close, with the Government ahead by just 1 per cent.
Asked who would be better managing the economy, the Government was ahead by 44 per cent to 27 per cent. On controlling consumer prices it was ahead by 33 per cent to 29 per cent.
The Fianna Fáil-PD coalition had a bigger lead on the question of who would keep taxes low, with 39 per cent to 26 per cent. It was even further ahead on the management of the Northern peace process, by 50 per cent to 18 per cent.