Large number of voters believe new party needed, poll indicates

A significant number of voters believe Ireland needs a new political party and a large majority have heard of Renua, according to the latest Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll.

The poll showed 7 per cent of voters say they find Renua very appealing, while 28 per cent say they find it fairly appealing.

When asked to what extent they believed Ireland needed a new party, 35 per cent said it definitely did, 23 per cent said it probably did, 12 per cent said it probably didn’t, 17 per cent said it definitely didn’t and 13 per cent had no opinion.

Interestingly, Fine Gael voters are far less enthusiastic about a new party than supporters of Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin and Independents.

A total of 15 per cent of Fine Gael voters said the country definitely needed a new party compared to 28 per cent of Labour voters, 32 per cent of Fianna Fáil, 43 per cent of Ind/Others and 51 per cent of Sinn Féin voters.

There were no great variations across the social classes, although farmers were the least enthusiastic about a new party and women were more inclined to welcome the prospect than men.

Asked if they had heard of Renua, 70 per cent of people said they had, while 26 per cent had not and just 4 per cent said they didn’t know.

New party

Farmers and AB voters were most likely to have heard of the new party, while the poorest DE voters were least likely to have heard of it.

Fewer women than men were aware of the party. As to its appeal, 7 per cent of voters found it very appealing, 28 per cent fairly appealing, 22 per cent fairly unappealing, 23 per cent very unappealing and 20 per cent had no opinion.

There were some interesting variations across the party spectrum in response to the new party. No Labour voters said they found Renua very appealing and just 3 per cent of Fine Gael voters were in this category. By contrast 9 per cent of Sinn Féin and Independents voters found the new party very appealing, while 10 per cent of Fianna Fáil voters took the same view.

Fairly appealing

On the question of whether they found the party fairly appealing, 20 per cent of Fine Gael voters were in this category as were 25 per cent of Fianna Fáil voters, 28 per cent of Independents, 30 per cent of Sinn Féin and 36 per cent of Labour voters.

When those who found Renua very or fairly appealing are added together Fine Gael voters are the least impressed on 23 per cent, Labour 36 per cent, Fianna Fáil 38 per cent, Independents 39 per cent and Sinn Féin 45 per cent.

The findings indicate that despite being founded by former Fine Gael TDs, Renua’s best hope of attracting votes is from supporters of other parties.

The survey was carried out on Monday and Tuesday this week among a representative sample of 1,200 voters aged 18 and over, in face-to-face interviews at 100 sampling points in all constituencies.

The margin of error is plus or minus 2.8 per cent.