Poll gives ‘confidence’ to the prospects of coalition returning – Donohoe

An opinion poll has given “confidence” to the prospects of the current coalition government returning, Paschal Donohoe has said.

The Public Expenditure Minister said that although the Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and Green party are “very, very separate parties”, recent polling indicates they could form another coalition government after the next general election.

It comes after an Irish Times/Ipsos B&A opinion poll showed that Fine Gael is on 23%, up four percentage points, while Sinn Fein is on 23%, down five points.

There was no change to Fianna Fail’s support from the last Irish Times poll, at 20%.

A continuation of the current coalition was the most favourable coalition, preferred by 33% of people, while a Sinn Fein-led government with neither Fianna Fail nor Fine Gael was preferred by 20%.

“It shows that the three parties that form the current government at the moment, they will go into the next election very, very separate parties, all the recent opinion polling over the last 12 to 18 months show the three parties coming together having the ability to form this government again,” Mr Donohoe told Newstalk.

“That’s still some time off, with the local and European elections to deal with first, we’ll all be putting our best foot forward there. But I think we can do so with further confidence.”

Taoiseach Simon Harris would not comment on whether the boost was down to a “Harris hop”.

“Let’s be honest, politicians always refer to the up than down in terms of opinion polls and what I certainly hope it gives is a little bit of a morale boost to my incredible candidates right across the country,” Mr Harris added.

“Local election candidates, European election candidates and all their members of teams who are out working so hard.

“It’s impossible to read any one thing into it.

“What I do know about government is this, and I remember Enda Kenny saying this to me many, many years ago when he was Taoiseach. Government is about making decisions. It’s about turning up every day and saying what can I do today to try and make progress.

“What I am very satisfied about is this, that this government, my party in government every single day we’re coming to work, and we’re saying, what more can we do?

“Over the last couple of days alone, we’ve seen package supports for businesses, decisions in relation to housing, extending support schemes, extending the waiver of the development levies, decisions that have to be made on migration, even though they’re not easy.

“The people elect us and pay us to make decisions.

“What I’m obsessed about is delivering. The only thing a good opinion poll makes me do is come to work an hour earlier, stay an hour later and work even harder.

“I’m a bit old-fashioned in this view. I believe if you come to work, you work hard and you do a good job, you might see the benefits of that in an election.”

Fianna Fail leader and Tanaiste Micheal Martin said that the local election will be “challenging” for the party, but did not accept that it was inevitable the party would lose council seats.

He was speaking as the party launched its local election manifesto in Dublin, which pledged to tackle vacancy and dereliction, tackle crime and to support efforts at the EU to increase Ireland’s fish quotas.

“It’s going to be challenging for us because we got 27% in the last occasion in the local elections, local election polls and general election polls are different, there’s a personal dimension to it as well, in addition to a party poll.

“So I think we’re in a good position to retain the majority of seats that we have, it’s going to be challenging, and we’re going to do everything we can.”

Asked does he accept Fianna Fail will lose council seats, Mr Martin said: “I’m not accepting anything. I mean, I’m going out there in a robust fashion. We’ll do the very best we can to retain the seats we have and gain extra seats.

“We had some big gains the last time, you know, winning four out of the seven, heels against the head kind of wins, three out of six. So some of them will be difficult to retain. But if you looked at predictions before the last two local elections, Fianna Fail defied those predictions.”

He added: “I think we’re one of the strongest parties that’s actually rooted in community, genuinely… and how well known our councillors are. And above all, how effective they are as community activists on councils, and that’s a strength we have which I think doesn’t necessarily always be mirrored or reflected in a national party poll.”