Presidential Election 2025

…and yet here is a list of parties who have tried to make Immigration their key focus:

• The National Party
• The Irish Freedom Party
• Renua (after John Leahy quit as leader)
• The Irish People
• Ireland First
• A whole host of independents who ran on immigration platforms

Between all of them the only elected officials were a handful of councilors in last year's local elections.

I'm not saying that a break-through is impossible but nobody has hit on that secret sauce that'll make this politically palatable for a wider Irish audience yet.

Personally, I think it's because most of those parties that tried to make migration their key focus also seems to be obsessed with Abortion. That topic is election kryptonite. Yes I know that 1/3 of the population voted against the referendum in 2018 but that does not necessarily mean that those people prize that subject over everything else. Most of them were probably older people who continued to vote FF/FG in subsequent elections no matter what.

Final turnout was 45.8%.

The Red C and Ipsos Mori polls turned out to be accurate.

1 in seven votes spoiled.

A substantial group Mr F, and this was the perfect opportunity.

A confirmed lefty against a half hearted FINE GAELER, The other Govt party in disarray, No fear that the 'lefty alliance' would have to go into power and actually implement stuff, the perfect storm in other words.

Its quite simple really.

Minor point: It is Ipsos-B&A. Ipsos bought the B&A pollster a few years ago. B&A used to do the polling for the Sunday Times.

Also worth noting that single-issue politics has never worked in Ireland.

You just need to look at previous General Elections for proof of that. None of the anti-immigration candidates made a dent, while Renua were wiped of the face of the Earth, to the point that they've gone down the clown conspiracy route.

If any of these candidates want to get elected, they need to be able to stand for something more and have clear plans on how to tackle housing (and just blaming immigrants doesn't work), how to address infrastructure deficits and the cost of living.

People can jump up and down all they want, but those are the biggest issues facing every single voter in Ireland today.

She is from a family of 14….. hint hint

The latest RedC poll (via Gavan Reilly on X) won't make for pleasant reading among FFers this morning. The SocDens decision to back Connolly first with Labour only jumping on the Connolly bandwagon seems to have benefited the SocDems rather than Labour.

POLL: Business Post/Red C(October 16-21, MoE 3%)

Sinn Féin 23 (+2 in six weeks)

Fine Gael 19 (+1)

Fianna Fáil 17 (-1)

Social Democrats 9 (+2)

Ind Ireland 5 (-1)

Labour 4

Aontú 4 (+1)

PBP-Solidarity 3 (-1)

Greens 3Inds/others 12 (-1)

MM saying the nomination system may need to be revisited.

An Irish Times poll recently found 55% wanted it reformed

those polls don’t matter a damn until it’s closer to an election.

Sitting TDs are just worried about their place in the world which right now, 3 to 4 years out from a GE is their current job, either getting one, keeping the current one or getting another.

The person with the power to decide those is the leader of their party so don’t expect any boat rocking for the next few years. Only thing that will take down MM or SH is some sort of personal or illegal scandal.

A year out and it’s a different story, if the parties are low in the polls then the TDs will start being worried about re-election, and then if there is a viable alternative emerging who might improve their chances of being elected then MM or SH are toast.

FG in particular puzzle me, I don’t understand the logic of having Varadkar or Harris as leaders, they don’t really resonate with anyone, young or old. MM is FF old stock so there’s probably a large percentage of party faithful and the general public who can relate to him. He’s still not a good leader, the decisions around this election show that.