Poll: Over a third of Irish people would consider voting for anti-immigrant party

The latest Ireland Thinks poll for the Sunday Independent shows minimal changes for the political parties but in one significant development support for Independents and Others has now overtaken Fianna Fáil.

There is also no poll bounce for Sinn Féin, which is down one point to 29pc, despite a historic week for the party with the return of power-sharing in North Ireland leading to the election of the first-ever nationalist First Minister, the party’s deputy leader Michelle O’Neill.

The poll finds that immigration is now the second most important priority for voters at 33pc (up 8 points), behind housing at 50pc (down 3).

When asked if they would consider voting for a party or candidate who holds strong anti-immigrant views, 35pc of those polled said they would. This represents an increase of seven points since December and more than double what it was in September 2021 when just 14pc said they would consider it.

Whilst majority of those polled - 54 per cent - said they would not consider voting for a party or candidate with strong anti-immigration views this is down from 63pc in December, while 11pc said they don't know.

In the state of the parties, Sinn Féin’s one point drop – to 29pc – is replicated by Fine Gael which is also down one point to 19pc.

Fianna Fail is unchanged on 17pc but has now been overtaken by Independents and Others on 18pc with support for this cohort increasing by seven points since last November.

Among the smaller parties, the Social Democrats are unchanged on 5pc, Labour is up one to 4pc, the Greens are unchanged on 3pc, Solidarity-People Before Profit is unchanged on 3pc and Aontú is also unchanged on 3pc.

Three-quarters of those polled who say they support Independent candidates said would consider voting for a party or candidate who holds strong anti-immigration views, just behind 79pc of Aontú supporters.

The next highest is Sinn Féin with 36pc of their supporters stating that they would consider voting for anti-immigration candidates.

This is followed by 27pc of Fianna Fail supporters and 18pc of Social Democrats supporters, 16pc of Fine Gael supporters, 7pc of Solidarity-People Before Profit supporters, and 6pc of Labour supporters.

The poll was taken on Thursday and Friday of this week among a sample size of 1,394 people with a margin of error of +/- 2.7pc