Fine Gael on the rise despite National Children’s Hospital overspend

Fine Gael has recovered from the public outcry over the cost of the National Children’s Hospital in the latest Sunday Business Post/Red C poll.

As the Dáil takes its one-week Easter break, the party’s support level is up by two points to 33 per cent.

Its support level had peaked at 34 per cent last November butit then dropped over the following months as news of the increase in the cost of the National Children’s Hospital to €1.7 billion emerged.

Fianna Fáil, which has been critical of Fine Gael’s oversight of the project and its deferral of a review of the property tax, has seen its support drop by two points to 23 per cent.

The party is now ten points behind Fine Gael, which will raise concerns internally that it is getting no benefit from party leader Micheál Martin’s strategy of firmly backing the government’s position on Brexit ‘in the national interest’ .

While Fianna Fáil is struggling,the poll is more positive for Sinn Féin, which is up by one point to 14 per cent. And Independents continue to perform strongly, with their support up by one point to 16 per cent.

There is a boost for former Sinn Féin TD Peadar Tóibín’s new Aontú party

The Labour Party, which is seeking to make gains after losing 50 councillors in the 2014 local elections, remains on 5 per cent for the third Red C poll in a row.

The Green Party, which had members taking part in the Extinction Rebellion climate action sit-down protest on Dublin’s O’Connell Bridge, remains on 3 per cent. There is a smaller showing for the Social Democrats, who are down by one point to two per cent. Their co-leader Catherine Murphy has been one of the most prominent in questioning governance at the Football Association of Ireland, whose executive vice-president John Delaney has stepped aside.

There is a boost for formerSinn Féin TD Peadar Tóibín’s new Aontú party, which registers at one per cent in this poll for the first time. It is running candidates in the local elections, as is Solidarity-People Before Profit, whose support level nationally is down by one point to one per cent.

This Red C telephone poll of 1,000 adults aged over 18 was carried out between Thursday 11 April and Wednesday 17 April. For full analysis of the poll, read tomorrow’s Sunday Business Post.

There will also be an exclusive Red C poll on how the electorate intends to vote in the European and local elections on May 24. This is the first insight into the race for 949 council seats at local level and 13 MEP seats at European level. Only in the Sunday Business Post.