Fianna Fáil hit out at Galway West opinion poll

Fianna Fáil has lashed pollsters for a “disheartening” pre-election poll in Galway West that proved to be “inaccurate”.

Former City Councillor, John Connolly, who surprised many with his performance in the general election, questioned the validity of the IPSOS/MRBI opinion poll carried out for TG4 and published just days before voters went to the polls.

The opinion poll put him at just 4%, which he believes was inaccurate but may have swayed Fianna Fáil voters towards sitting TD Éamon Ó Cuív.

Mr Connolly said: “The opinion poll that was published during the week certainly didn’t help us. You’d have to seriously question its accuracy, when you see what has happened here today. I can’t even recall what they got right in that poll. Mary (Hoade) at 4% is about right. But they had Sean (Kyne) at a similar percentage as Éamon (Ó Cuív) but as we see he’s a good bit behind him. And they had John O’Mahony on 11% and he’s not hitting anywhere near that.

“They had (Noel) Grealish written off. To be honest I question if companies should be publishing opinion polls without really showing the validity behind it. A sample of 500 is too small for starters. And when you’re facing down the barrel of an election, getting news about an opinion poll like that was really disheartening.

The timing of it wasn’t the biggest issue. It was close to polling day but certainly it was disheartening for my supporters. And certainly it may have been disheartening for Fianna Fáil voters in the city who said ‘look, we want to make sure Eamon gets over the line and make sure we hold onto our one seat’. But it was never in doubt. It helped Grealish, it instilled a small degree of fear into his supporters.

“It was deflating for me personally, it was deflating for the people who were with me and there was a certain element of Fianna Fáil supporters who said ‘well, we’ll stick with the tried and trusted just in case’. I just think that standards need to apply to opinion polls and there needs to be some sort of regulation of work like that on opinion polls”

The TG4/Ipsos opinion poll results

Éamon Ó Cuív (Fianna Fáil)                    13%

Seán Kyne (Fine Gael)                             13%

John O’Mahony (Fine Gael)                   11%

Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Féin)        11%

Catherine Connolly  (Independent)     8%

Noel Grealish (Neamhspleách)              7%

Hildegarde Naughton (Fine Gael)          6%

Derek Nolan (Labour)                                 6%

Niall Ó Tuathail (Social Democrats)        6%

Mary Hoade (Fianna Fáil)                           4%

John Connolly  (Fianna Fáil)                       4%

Fidelma Healy Eames (Ind)                        3%

Nicola Daveron  (Renua)                             2%

Mike Cubbard (Independent)                  2%

Seamus Sheridan  (Green)                        2%

Tommy Holohan  (AAA-PBP)                    2%