{"id":281760,"date":"2026-02-05T08:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T08:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/281760\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T08:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T08:14:08","slug":"taoiseach-recovers-but-government-satisfaction-slumps-irish-times-ipsos-ba-poll-finds-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/281760\/","title":{"rendered":"Taoiseach recovers but Government satisfaction slumps, Irish Times\/Ipsos B&A poll finds \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Support for Fianna F\u00e1il<\/a> and Fine Gael<\/a> has stabilised while Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> has slipped back since last year, according to the latest Irish Times\/Ipsos B&A opinion poll<\/a>, the first of the year.<\/p>\n

The personal rating of Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> has recovered after a slump in the wake of Fianna F\u00e1il\u2019s disastrous presidential election campaign last year and he is now once again the most popular party leader.<\/p>\n

A majority of all voters who express an opinion say Martin should step down as leader of his party \u2013 but he enjoys the overwhelming backing of Fianna F\u00e1il voters by a margin of more than four to one.<\/p>\n

There are gains for the Social Democrats, the Greens and Independent Ireland, though all are within the margin of error. Sinn F\u00e9in remains the most popular party by a clear margin. <\/p>\n

Fianna F\u00e1il support has recovered by two points. But satisfaction with the Government as a whole, having fallen back in the second half of last year, remains at its lowest point for six years.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0The Irish Times-Ipsos B&A poll: full results in chartsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The state of the parties, when undecided voters and those unlikely to vote are excluded, is: Fianna F\u00e1il on 19 per cent (up two), Sinn F\u00e9in on 24 per cent (down three) and Fine Gael on 18 per cent (no change).<\/p>\n

Among the smaller parties, the Social Democrats are at 7 per cent (up two), Labour is at 4 per cent (down two), the Green Party is at 4 per cent (up one), People Before Profit-Solidarity is on 2 per cent (no change), Aont\u00fa is at 3 per cent (no change) and Independent Ireland is on 4 per cent (up two).<\/p>\n

Independents\/others are at 16 per cent (down one). The comparisons are with the most recent Irish Times\/Ipsos poll last October. <\/p>\n

Undecided voters \u2013 who are excluded from the above figures \u2013 are at 27 per cent, an increase of four points since October.<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s findings partially reverse the movements in the previous poll, when both Fianna F\u00e1il and Martin suffered big drops in support, while Sinn F\u00e9in saw its support jump.<\/p>\n

Satisfaction with the Government is down by a point to 30 per cent, continuing a slide in the second half of 2025. This is the lowest level, in terms of the Government satisfaction figure, since just before the 2020 general election, when the Fine Gael-Independent government was in office.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0The Irish Times view: Fianna F\u00e1il sticks with Miche\u00e1l Martin – at least for nowOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

But there is better news for the Fianna F\u00e1il leader. After a torrid few months in the wake of Jim Gavin\u2019s disastrous candidacy in the presidential election \u2013 which saw unrest among Martin\u2019s own TDs about his leadership \u2013 the Taoiseach\u2019s satisfaction has recovered by four points to 37 per cent. It makes him the most popular party leader.<\/p>\n

Fine Gael leader Simon Harris sees his rating slip by four points to 31 per cent, while Sinn F\u00e9in president Mary Lou McDonald has also slipped by four points to 35 per cent.<\/p>\n

The poll included a specific question on the future of Martin. Asked if he should step down or remain as leader of Fianna F\u00e1il, a majority of those who expressed a preference (43 per cent) said he should step down, while 39 per cent said he should remain as leader. People who didn\u2019t know were at 18 per cent.<\/p>\n

However, Martin enjoys overwhelming support among Fianna F\u00e1il voters \u2013 79 per cent say he should remain as leader while just 17 per cent want him to step down. A large majority of Fine Gael voters also back him, while Sinn F\u00e9in and Independent voters are strongly opposed to him.<\/p>\n

The poll was conducted among a representative sample of adults aged 18 years and upwards across 120 sampling points throughout all constituencies.<\/p>\n

Unlike most other opinion polls, The Irish Times\/Ipsos B&A series is conducted through face-to-face sampling. Personal in-home interviewing took place between January 30th and February 3rd. There were 1,200 interviews conducted and the accuracy is estimated at plus or minus 2.8 per cent.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Analysis: Relief for Martin as polls swing backOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Support for Fianna F\u00e1il and Fine Gael has stabilised while Sinn F\u00e9in has slipped back since last year,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,9735,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-281760","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-irish-times-poll","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}