The publication of opinion polls during the last week of election campaigns will be banned, the Government decided yesterday.
Despite a Cabinet decision 10 years ago not to go ahead with such a move because of constitutional implications, the same proposal will be contained in an amendment to come before the Dail tomorrow.
Last week the Opposition proposed a series of amendments to the Electoral Amendment Bill, none of which were taken on board.
However, on Thursday, a day after an MRBI/TG4 poll showed the Fianna Fail candidate performing very poorly in the Tipperary South by-election campaign, it was indicated there was one amendment it would adopt.
It was a Fine Gael proposal to ban the publication of opinion polls in the seven days before an election.
The matter only came before the Cabinet yesterday morning. Ministers were given advice on possible constitutional implications by the Attorney General, Mr Michael McDowell. However, a Government spokesman said he was unable to reveal the nature of that advice.
In 1991, when the matter was previously proposed, the then attorney general, according to the Government spokesman, "sounded a note of caution in relation to the constitutionality of it".
The spokesman said the matter had first been raised at Cabinet in June 2000 when the Electoral Amendment Bill was brought forward.
The move was welcomed by the Fine Gael spokeswoman on local government, Ms Olivia Mitchell, last night, but uncertainty remained about the Labour Party position.
Their environment spokesman, Mr Eamon Gilmore, supported the ban last Thursday. However, the party leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, opposed the idea when he spoke after the Tipperary South by-election result on Sunday.
The Government spokesman said private opinion polls, including ones by political parties, could still be conducted during the period but not published.
The National Newspapers of Ireland criticised the move last night, saying it believed the freedom to conduct and publish the results of opinion polls is a fundamental democratic right.
"The politicians themselves will not be banned from expressing their views and opinions right up until the last minute."