Snapshot survey: Is the Government making the country go in the right or wrong direction?

The referendums on family and care, which were overwhelmingly defeated a fortnight ago, topped the list of issues that grabbed the public attention in the last month.

The findings of the latest monthly Snapshot research by Ipsos B&A for The Irish Times showed that the referendums shot to the top of the list of what the public is noticing about the Government in the past month – surpassing even housing, while immigration slips down the list.

The monthly Snapshot seeks to gauge what voters are noticing about what the Government is doing and whether that pushes the country generally in the right or wrong direction.

[ Failed referendums can be the starting point for real reform ]

In the past month, the referendums on family and care were the number-one thing noticed by voters – and their response to the Government’s efforts was overwhelmingly negative.

Housing, immigration, Gaza: Which issues are Irish voters really paying attention to?

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Voters largely unmoved by resignation of Varadkar and elevation of Harris

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Housing is the top issue for voters, especially those aged 25-34

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Poll analysis: Housing and immigration are making the headlines, but other topics are becoming more prominent

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Almost a quarter of respondents (23 per cent) cited the referendums as getting their attention. Of these, more than four out of five (81 per cent) had a negative view of what they noticed.

Housing, which has featured prominently among the issues noticed by voters since the research was commenced last summer, is in second place this month, with Government efforts catching the attention of 16 per cent of voters, only a slight decline of one point since last month.

[ The debate: Have the referendums killed citizens’ assemblies? ]

Again, the overwhelming majority of comments, 89 per cent of them, from respondents on housing were negative.

Immigration has fallen in prominence as an issue in the past month. After rising steadily in the second half of last year and peaking in January when 24 per cent of respondents said it was the issue they had most noticed, immigration falls to 14 per cent today, a reflection of how anti-migrant protests have become less prominent. However, it still ranks third, behind the referendums and housing.

Four out of five respondents (80 per cent) who cited immigration as the issue they noticed had negative views about the Government’s efforts, some of them intensely so.

A variety of other topics – climate change/sustainability, cost of living/inflation, health, social policies, democracy/political process, budget/spending, employment, the economy, RTÉ and Israel-Palestine were all nominated by between 5-2 per cent of respondents.

It is noteworthy that issues related to the economy feature so little in people’s thoughts. Crime, which surged as an issue in the wake of the Dublin riots, is noticed by just 1 per cent this month.

[ Referendum fallout: What can we learn from Government’s crushing defeat? ]

The new survey asks more than 1,000 respondents the following question: “What have you come across in what the Government has said or done recently that has made you think the country is going in the right or wrong direction?”

Their responses are then collated and sorted by issue and whether they view the Government in a positive or negative light as a result. A selection of their verbatim responses is also carried in today’s Irish Times.

The data was collected using Omnipoll, Ipsos’s telephone omnibus survey which interviews a fresh, nationally representative sample of 1,000 adults aged 15-plus every two weeks. The sample used includes both mobile and landline phone numbers.

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