Fine Gael In 'Pole Position'

The Republic's Fine Gael party is streaking ahead in sampling for the forthcoming election with the latest Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll showing the party enjoying a 3% rise in support since December.

As Fine Gael accelerates into pole position, the winner of the last election Fianna Fáil, is now languishing in last place, down two points to 15%, and little sign that the new leader Michael Martin has done much to reverse the party's downfall.

Labour are down one point to 24 of the vote, while Sinn Féin, the fourth most popular party fell two points to 12%.

The Green Party, are now on just 1% of the vote, and will struggle to return any TDs to the Dáil if today's poll results remain accurate.

This morning, Fianna Fail's Nial Collins accused rivals Fine Gael of "hiding" party leader Enda Kenny, saying their strategy of curtailing his exposure to media questioning was a "new low" after reports of a Fine Gael press conference where the leader left before facing questions from the media.

"Reports of a swift and premature exit from the FG Press Conference by Deputy Kenny this morning confirms that his media handlers want to restrict Enda’s exposure to hard and detailed questioning," said Deputy Collins.

"Fine Gael seems to believe that providing soundbites will suffice in the run-up to the election. I can assure them that this is not, and will not be, the case.

"The Irish electorate deserve to see those who aspire to the office of Taoiseach being put through their paces regarding their policies and their plans for economic recovery."

However, Fine Gael countered the attack said that Micheál Martin's press conference today contained "no plan and no policies to reverse the catastrophic decisions made by Fianna Fáil" and that he instead spent his time attacking others.

Fine Gael's Dublin Central Candidate Paschal Donohoe has said Mr Martin's attacks have "exposed him" and his party.

"After spending 14 years destroying the Irish economy and handing over our economic sovereignty to the IMF, they now show that Fianna Fáil has plans and no policies."

(DW)