Fine Gael divided over General Election date

Poor opinion poll ratings for the Coalition partners and fallout from the water charges controversy have left Ministers in fear of losing their seats and Fine Gael divided over a general election date.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny appears determined not to call an election before the Government’s mandate concludes in early April 2016.

A source on the Fine Gael side of Government indicated the party was divided on the issue, but played down speculation that the election could be called straight after the budget next October.

“There is a school of thought that you take your opponent by surprise by having a snap election and off you go, but the view of party management and leadership is that the implementation of the next budget is vital,” the source said.

The Government spokesman insisted the focus of debate should not be on the date of the next general election.

‘The recovery’

“The electorate wants us to focus on widening and deepening the recovery. Any conversation around when an election will be removes our focus from that and we have no intention of allowing that to happen,” he said.

The last possible date in the life of the 31st Dáil is March 8th, 2016, while the latest date for a general election is April 9th, 2016.

Fianna Fáil TD Dara Calleary predicted the nation would go to the polls next year. "I'm firmly of a belief that there will be a general election in 2015. I suspect the last budget was the beginning of an election campaign," he told The Irish Times.

However, a senior Government source said the Coalition had a lot more work to do, including the implementation of further reductions to income tax. Mistakes made on water charges had been taken on board.

“There is a trust rebuilding phase that needs to be entered into. There is no doubt about that.

“When you put your hand up, there’s no point in sitting around waiting to get a pat on the back.”

Support for Fine Gael has fallen to 22 per cent, a decline of four percentage points, according to the Red C opinion poll.

Water charges

Commissioned by the

Sunday Business Post

, it was based on sampling, the majority of which was carried out before the new version of the water charges regime was announced by the Government on Wednesday.

The fall in support for Fine Gael means the party is now 14 percentage points behind its support level in the last election.

In fact, the party is now below the level of support it achieved in the 2007 and 2002 elections. Fine Gael is tied with Sinn Féin on 22 per cent.

The poll shows support for Labour and Fianna Fáil unchanged at 8 per cent and 18 per cent respectively.

Independents and Sinn Féin registered a two percentage point increase each, with Independents now accounting for 30 per cent support.

If the poll results were replicated in the next general election, Labour would likely be reduced to a handful of seats, while Fine Gael would expect to hold about 40 seats, a loss of almost 30.