A COALITION government between Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats is the most popular option with respondents in an IMS/Sunday Independent opinion poll published yesterday.
In the poll taken on October 10th, 30 per cent favoured the Fianna Fail/PD combination, with 25 per cent for Fianna Fail Labour and 25 per cent also for the present alliance.
Fianna Fail improved its showing on the previous IMS poll from 47 per cent to 50 per cent. Labour registered a slight increase from 11 per cent to 12 per cent but Fine Gael was down from 24 per cent to 21 per cent.
Support for most of the other parties remained static: Progressive Democrats 5 per cent; Green Party 4 per cent; Democratic Left 2 per cent, Sinn Fein 2 per cent and the Workers' Party up from 1 to 2 per cent.
The combined vote for Fianna Fail and the PDs at 55 per cent was 20 points higher than the total for the current coalition partners at 35 per cent. However, satisfaction with the overall Government performance rose two points to 45 per cent.
Support for individual party leaders showed all of them except Mr Dick Spring and Mr Proinsias De Rossa losing support. The Taoiseach was down three points on last July to 51 per cent; Mr Bertie Ahern fell from 55 per cent to 51 per cent and Ms Mary Harney went from 63 per cent to 60 per cent. However, the Labour leader rose from 48 per cent to 51 per cent and Mr De Rossa's rating increased from 41 per cent to 47 per cent.
A total of 63 per cent wanted the Government to take a "much more aggressive approach towards the IRA", with 27 per cent opposed to tougher action.
The poll showed 72 per cent support for Mrs Robinson serving a second term as President with 16 per cent for Mr Charles Haughey and 9 per cent for Mr Albert Reynolds.