Irish polling

After hearing today's latest headlines I thought I'd have a look at Irish opinion polls again. There are two issues at stake here. The first is the Donegal South West By-election which takes place on Wednesday. The press association is calling this for Sinn Fein after a 500 person survey conducted by Red C (on Behalf of bookmakers Paddy Power). This is FF heartland so a bad loss here will be extremely traumatic for the party.

The same pollsters have also produced a poll for tomorrows papers with the latest Eire wide figures of

Fianna Fáil 17% (41.6% last time)
Fine Gael 33% (27.3%)
Labour 27% (10.1%)
Greens 3% (4.7%)
Sinn Féin 11% (6.9%)

If the election is held in the next few months we will see the end of an intire political class in Ireland as the largest party in the countries history is dumped into a miserable third place fight with Sinn Fein.

Interesting times...

Across the Irish sea

Today's news on the Republic's financial woes led me to have a look what the polling figures are like there at the moment.

A quick search led to this poll by Millward Brown Lansdowne

The Topline figures are (2007 results in brackets)
Fianna Fail 22% (41.6%)
Fine Gael 30% (27.3%)
Labour 35% (10.1%)
Green Party 2% (4.7%)
Sinn Fein 4% (6.9%)
Independents/Others 8% (7%)

The main story is how the Labour party has gone from the also ran party to a clear lead. This could really be the end of Fianna Fail/Fine Gael dominance in Dublin. It also goes to show that in turbulent times party fortunes can change incredibly quickly.