Support for Ireland’s main political party, Fianna Fáil, has reached it’s lowest ever point, according to the latest Irish Times/ poll. The party now stands at only 17 per cent support . It received over 44 per cent in the last election. They seem likely to retain less than 30 of their 70 plus seats in the upcoming election.

With an election due in Mid March 2011 at the latest the party seems in complete meltdown following their inept handling of the massive financial crisis.

This week’s poll also revealed that Fine Gael has bounced back as the most popular party in the country while Sinn Fein are making spectacular gains, and are only two points behind Fianna Fail.
The Irish Times poll figures are (previous poll taken September 30 in brackets) : Fianna Fáil, 17 per cent (down seven points); Fine Gael, 30 per cent (up six points); Labour, 25 per cent (down eight points); Sinn Féin, 15 per cent (up seven points); Green Party, 2 per cent (no change); and Independents/Others, 11 per cent (up two points).

Government satisfaction now stands at just 8 percent (down 5 points), while the number of those dissatisfied is running at 90 percent (up seven points). Satisfaction with the Taoiseach stands at 14 percent (down five points).

In comparison with the last Irish Times poll, the core vote for the parties was Fianna Fáil, 13 percent (down six points); Fine Gael, 23 percent (up three points); Labour, 18 percent (down nine points); Sinn Féin, 11 percent (up five points); and Green Party, 1 percent (down one point).

All party leaders have witnessed a drop in their satisfaction ratings, with Eamon Gilmore coming out on top again as the most popular party leader with 44 percent.

Fine Gael leader, Enda Kenny is on 23 per cent (down two points), the leader of the Green’s John Gormley is on 13 per cent (down five points); and Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams is on 28 per cent (down one point).

The poll occurred on Monday and Tuesday of this week among a sample of 1,000 voters aged 18 and over during face-to-face interviews at 100 sampling areas in all 43 constituencies.

The results are the lowest ratings ever achieved by a Government or Prime Minister since polling began for the Irish Times in the early eighties.