Dublin: Ireland today faced the prospect of political deadlock following a knife-edge election, as an exit poll indicated a slump in support for the government of Prime Minister Enda Kenny.
Support for Kenny’s centre-right Fine Gael party slumped to 26.1 per cent compared to 36.1 in the previous election in 2011, according to the exit poll conducted by Ipsos, MRBI for the Irish Times.
Junior coalition partner Labour meanwhile saw its support shrink to 7.8 per cent from 19.
IRISH ELECTION GUIDE
Parties
Fine Gael: A party born out of loyalty to Irish independence military leader Michael Collins, who was assassinated by republican diehards for accepting the 1921 Anglo Irish Treaty that partitioned Ireland. Now centre-right in economic policy, strongly pro-European and increasingly socially liberal. Won 76 seats in the 2011 general election – an all-time high.
Fianna Fáil: Founded by Michael Collins’ great civil war rival Éamon de Valera, the party ultimately accepted the Anglo Irish settlement and became the most successful political force in post-independence Irish history. Economically centrist, often populist, it was blamed for the collapse of the Celtic Tiger amid allegations that the party was too close to property speculators and bankers. In the last election it crashed to just 20 seats.
Sinn Féin: The party once known around the world as the political wing of the Provisional IRA has benefited enormously from the Northern Ireland peace process. Led by Gerry Adams, it had 14 seats in the last Dáil and is expected to return with at least 20 in this election, positioning itself as a party of protest against austerity cuts.
Labour: The oldest party in the state and rooted in the trade unions, Labour faces the possibility of electoral meltdown akin to the Liberal Democrat wipeout in the UK last year. Labour was at the vanguard of social change as junior partner in the current government, championing the gay marriage referendum, but it also took flak over the coalition’s unpopular tax rises and public spending cuts.
Anti Austerity Alliance/People Before Profit: Both parties are rooted in the far-left Socialist party (former Militant Tendency) and the Socialist Workers party. They draw support, like Sinn Féin, from urban working-class areas where there is widespread discontent over austerity.
Main issues
The recovery: Fine Gael emphasises the Irish economic recovery from the 2008 crash and the loss of economic sovereignty when the IMF took over fiscal policy in 2010. The party stresses that the recovery is fragile and needs another stable government. Critics say the measures taken to plug the gap in national finances – tax rises, public spending cuts, wage freezes, etc – were too extreme and hit those on low-to-middle incomes.
Water charges: One condition of the IMF bailout, which prevented national bankruptcy, was that Ireland needed to fund its own water system. The introduction of water charges prompted mass protests across the republic.
Crime: The audacious, televised attack on a boxing bout weigh-in in Dublin this month refocused the public’s mind on crime, gangsters and the drug crisis ravaging certain urban areas of Ireland, particularly in its capital. It has proved to be a problem for Sinn Féin, as the party supports the abolition of the non-jury special criminal court, an institution set up in the 1970s to convict terrorists. The other parties argue that the court is still needed to prosecute organised crime.
@Agency report.
