Clare Dáil Hopefuls Downplay First Election Poll of Election Campaign

Two of Clare’s Dáil hopefuls are downplaying the first opinion poll of the General Election campaign, which gave Fianna Fáil a 12 point lead of Fine Gael.

There’s now 19 days left to polling day and the ballot paper in Clare is continuing to grow with a 13th candidate now throwing their hat into the race.

This weekend’s opinion poll showed Fianna Fáil 12 points ahead of Fine Gael – and Sinn Féin just a point behind them.

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The Sunday Times/Behaviour and Attitudes Survey of 923 people, was conducted between the 2nd and the 14th of January, during the RIC controversy, as well as the trolley crisis in the health service.

Today, figures from both parties have downplayed the significance of the poll.

Outoing Clarecastle Fine Gael TD Joe Carey says much will change between now and polling day.

Fianna Fáil figures are also refusing to much stock into the results of the survey.

Councillor Cathal Crowe, who’s running for the party in this election, says he’s taking nothing for granted.

For the other parties, the opinion poll showed that the Greens have gained one point and are now on seven percent while Labour are down two to four percent.

Elsewhere Solidarity/People Before Profit drop one to two percent, Renua are up one to one percent and the Social Democrats are unchanged at one percent.

Independents and others are up 1 to 10%, while Sinn Féin is down 1 to 19, just one point behind Fine Gael.

Sinn Féin in Clare selected their candidate on Saturday, namely Kilrush woman Violet Anne Wynne.

She hopes the additional support will be reflected when people in this county head to the polls.

Meanwhile, a political party that wants Ireland to leave the European Union will have a candidate in Clare in the General Election.

Michael Leahy, a former President of Ennis Chamber, is to run for the Irish Freedom Party.

It also says that it seeks the protection of freedom of speech rights, and promotes what it calls the “repatriation of powers” from the EU.

Mr. Leahy was of the Clare pro-life campaign during the 2018 referendum on the Eighth Amendment.