Tánaiste Micheál Martin has said he is not worried about the support that Simon Harris appears to have garnered, based on recent polls, as he pledged to “out-poll the polls”.
The Irish Times/Ipsos poll indicated Mr Harris is the most popular political leader, after his support increased since the summer by 17 percentage points to 55 per cent.
His party, Fine Gael, is on 27 per cent (up four points), and ahead of Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil, on 20 per cent and 19 per cent respectively.
It follows a recent trend of positive poll results for the new Fine Gael leader and Taoiseach, who took up the role five months ago.
Mr Martin said that polls ahead of the local elections had his party in “a distant” third place, but they won the most council seats.
Fianna Fáil emerged as the largest party in local government, with 248 seats, with Fine Gael close behind on 245.
The Fianna Fáil leader said: “So, a lot of work to be done. It’s all there to play for and we’re going to work very hard at constituency level, national level, and then we do everything we can to out-poll the polls.”
Mr Harris has said he is “grateful” to the Irish people but added that “polls come and polls go”.
“I’m a new Taoiseach, but I’m in politics long enough to not read too much into them,” he said at the National Ploughing Championships.
“It’s always better to be up than down. I’m very grateful to the people of Ireland for giving me a chance, for giving me an opportunity, for being willing to listen, and I hope, in return, to me listen to them as I travel right across the country.
“There will be a general election in due course. My position on this hasn’t changed. I’ve been asked about it on a very regular basis, but right now I want the Government to get on with its work, and I want the Government to finish its work as well.”
Asked if he was worried about the support the Fine Gael leader was getting, Mr Martin said: “Not necessarily, to be frank, because we do our own research and work as well.
“The multi-seat proportional representation electoral system, (there’s a) combination of factors involved in terms of constituency strengths.
“But, as I said, in the May poll and in all the polling before the local elections, we were in a distant third and we came out first in terms of seats in the local elections.
“We doubled our European seats from two to four only last June and you all heard what I said about polling on count day after the Europeans, it’s all there to play for.”
