Adrian Kavanagh, 29th June 2015

Yesterday (Sunday) saw the publication of two new opinion polls; including the latest in monthly series of Sunday Business Post-Red C opinion polls, while a new Sunday Independent-Millward Brown opinion poll was also published. Following a good opinion poll for the party last week, Fianna Fail also gained some ground in these two opinion polls. Fine Gael support levels remain at a notably higher level than the low point reached by the party in the December 2014 opinion polls, while Fine Gael also gained some ground in the Millward Brown poll. The Independent and Others grouping make significant gains in the Red C poll, mainly at the expense of Sinn Fein and Labour. The Independents and Others grouping did lose some support, however, in the Millward Brown poll, with Fianna Fail and Fine Gael both gaining at the expense of Sinn Fein and Labour losses in this instance. Indeed, this was the first opinion poll since the Millward Brown poll of 20th April 2014 in which the combined Fine Gael and Fianna Fail support levels exceeded the 50% level. This weekend’s Sunday Business Post-Red C poll estimates party support levels as follows (and relative to the previous such Sunday Business Post-Red C poll): Fine Gael 28% (NC), Independents and Others 27% (up 5%), Fianna Fail 20% (up 1%), Sinn Fein 18% (down 3%),Labour Party 7% (down 3%). My constituency-level analysis of these poll figures estimates that party seat levels, should such national support trends be replicated in an actual general election, would be as follows: Fianna Fail 35, Fine Gael 55, Sinn Fein 25, Labour Party 3, Independents and Others 40. This weekend’s Sunday Independent-Millward Brown poll estimates party support levels as follows (and relative to the previous such Sunday Independent-Millward Brown poll): Fine Gael 29% (up 4%), Fianna Fail 23% (up 4%), Independents and Others 21% (down 2%), Sinn Fein 21% (down 3%),Labour Party 6% (down 2%). My constituency-level analysis of these poll figures estimates that party seat levels, should such national support trends be replicated in an actual general election, would be as follows: Fianna Fail 37, Fine Gael 57, Sinn Fein 33, Labour Party 1, Independents and Others 30.

Support levels for the Independents and Others grouping still remains higher than what it stood at for the 2011 General Election, admittedly with support for this grouping standing at a notably higher level in the Red C poll than in the Millward Brown poll. It is worth noting that seat levels for the Independents grouping can be notably harder to glean than would be the case for the larger political parties. First of all, opinion polls usually measure support for Independents and Others and not just Independent candidates. A number of smaller parties and alliances, including Renua Ireland, the new centre-left political party involving Catherine Murphy, Roisin Shortall and Stephen Donnelly, the Workers Party, the Anti-Austerity Alliance/Socialist Party and People Before Profit Alliance – as well as the Green Party in the case of some opinion polls – are included within this very large and diverse grouping. The nature of this grouping means that support levels do not usually translate as neatly into seat gains as would be the case with parties such as Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Vote transfer levels across this grouping will generally not prove to be as strong as the extent of intra-party vote transfer levels enjoyed by the larger political parties, who in turn often enjoy a “seat bonus” at most general election contests. Votes for Independents located in the centre-right of the political spectrum (such as the Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael “gene pool” independents or people such as Shane Ross and Stephen Donnelly) are probably more likely to be transferred to the two main parties (or else be shaped by local candidate factors) than they are to go to left-leaning independent candidates. In a similar vein, Renua Ireland and the centre-right independents are probably less likely to draw large numbers of vote transfers from left-wing independents than candidates from Sinn Féin, the People Before Profit Alliance or Socialist Party are. Furthermore, votes won by the Independents and Others grouping tend to be shared across a larger number of candidates than would be the case with the larger political parties, with a significant number of these candidates also having little or no chance of winning seats. For instance, candidates from the Independents and Others grouping won 20.4% of the vote in Laois-Offaly at the 2011 General Election, but, with this constituency being contested by eleven candidates from this grouping, none of these went on to win a seat here. (By contrast, Sinn Féin’s Brian Stanley won a seat there with 10.8% of the vote.) At this year’s local elections, 583 independent candidates and 139 candidates from the “Others” (smaller parties/alliances) grouping combined to win 26.6% of the national vote, emerging as the largest political grouping in terms of vote share. But, with this vote being divided up between a much larger number of candidates than Fine Gael (468) and especially Fianna Fáil (415), this grouping accounted for a smaller number of Council seats (225) than the number won by Fianna Fáil (267) or Fine Gael (235).

The main issue when it comes to sustaining current support levels for the Independents and Others grouping into the next general election relates to how the electorate tends to become increasingly focused on the composition of the next government in the months leading up to this contest. The precedent in recent electoral contests shows that significant changes in public opinion can occur in the months leading up to a general election. In the past, such changing support trends have often seen this grouping becoming increasingly marginalised, or “squeezed out”, the closer one gets to polling day, especially when election contests are perceived to be close, as was the case with the 2007 General Election. However, the Independents and Others grouping includes a number of alliances or groupings that could possibly command five, or more, seats in Dáil Eireann after the next election. Such alliances/groupings could be in a position to play a significant role within the next government. Falling into this category on the left of the political spectrum would be the Socialist Party/Anti Austerity Alliance and People Before Profit Alliance, as well as the Independents Network grouping. By contrast, Renua Ireland would also be well placed to challenge for similarly high seat levels, while another key player here, of course, will be the proposed new alliance of independents, involving Shane Ross, John Halligan, Michael Fitzmaurice, Finian McGrath and others. If these groupings can portray themselves as groupings that could be potentially strong actors within the next government, then they are less like to get “squeezed out” in the run up to the next election when decisions as regards government formation weigh heavier on political choice.

Sinn Féin support levels still remain well in excess of the levels won at the 2011 General Election, although Sinn Fein does lose some ground in both of these polls and the party’s support levels falls below the twenty percent level in the Red C opinion poll. A major concern for Sinn Fein focuses on the need to maintain their relatively high support levels in the remaining months up to the next general election. But the party also faces concerns that Sinn Fein support levels measured in opinion polls does not convert neatly into similar support levels in actual electoral contests, as evidenced in the City and County Council elections of May 2014 where the national average support level for Sinn Fein was a few percent lower than that registered in opinion polls around the time of those contests. The remaining evidence of transfer toxicity also poses concerns for Sinn Fein and the fact that Sinn Fein candidates can struggle to win vote transfers off candidates from other political groupings could prove costly in tight electoral contests, as evidenced in the Dublin West and Dublin South-West by-elections of 2014. That being said, Kathleen Funchion did fare notably stronger in terms of attracting vote transfers at the 2015 Carlow-Kilkenny by-election contest. Moreover, if Sinn Fein were to win 19% nationally in the next general election, quite a number of their potential gains would probably be in a position where they would not be requiring transfers in order to win seats, as suggested in this analysis. As Sinn Fein did not contest some constituencies in 2011 (e.g. Clare, Dublin North, Dun Laoghaire, Kerry South, Limerick (County)), the estimates for these constituencies are undoubtedly under-estimated here. Indeed the results in these areas in the May local elections suggest Sinn Fein are probably in a much stronger position in these areas than would be suggested by the results of this analysis.

Fianna Fáil support levels in this poll are now a few percentage points higher than the level of support won by that party at the 2011 General Election, with the party support level in the Millward Brown poll being well in excess of the levels attained by Fianna Fail in most recent opinion polls. Furthermore, as most electoral contests held since 2011 have shown, Fianna Fail have tended to perform better in actual elections than they have been performing in opinion polls. They did of course recently win the Carlow-Kilkenny by-election of 22nd May 2015 (which may be a factor accounting for the improved performance in these particular opinion polls) – although the party was admittedly better placed to win this contest than would have been the case with the six previous by-elections held during the lifetime of the current Dail. Furthermore, the Fianna Fail performance in the 2014 Local Elections exceeded expectations based on the opinion polls leading up to that contest (and indeed the exit poll taken on the day of that contest). Could it be the case that voters are more inclined to support Fianna Fail candidates than they are to support Fianna Fail, the party? In any case, despite the party’s disappointing poll standings, this analysis suggests that Fianna Fail would be well placed to make a number of gains at the next election (even with the overall reduction of Dail seat numbers from 166 to 158), with the increasingly fractured political landscape and the declining fortunes of Fine Gael and Labour creating an opportunity space for Fianna Fail seat gains (or, rather, regains).

Given the Labour Party’s geography of support, but also given the increased level of opposition the party faces on the left of the political spectrum from Sinn Fein, the People Before Profit Alliance, the Anti-Austerity Alliance and other left-wing groupings/independent candidates, Labour will struggle to convert votes into seats if their national support levels fall below the 10% level, as evidenced in this analysis and as discussed in greater detail in the concluding section to this post. If the party’s support levels nationally were to fall around the 6% or 7% level at the next general election, then – given the changed nature of political competition, transfer patterns and the new Dail constituency boundaries – Labour would need a lot of luck to end up winning more than a handful of seats at this contest. Unfortunately for Labour, when a party is leaking support at an election, it also tends to running out of luck as well.

Constituency support estimates for different parties and groupings form the basis of the general approach taken with this analysis. This seeks to ask the following question in relation to different opinion poll results – what do these poll figures mean in terms of the likely number of Dail seats that could be won by the different parties and groupings on those national support levels? Although the Irish electoral system is classified as a proportional electoral system, the proportion of seats won by parties will not measure up exactly to their actual share of the first preference votes, mainly because geography has a very significant impact here. First preference votes need to be filtered through the system of Irish electoral constituencies (and the different numbers of seats that are apportioned to these). In order to address this question, I estimate what the party first preference votes would be in the different constituencies, assuming similar (proportional) changes in party vote shares in all constituencies to those that are being suggested by a particular opinion poll. This of course is a very rough model and it cannot take appropriate account of the fact that changing support levels between elections tend to vary geographically, while it also fails to take account of the local particularities of the different regions in cases where no regional figures are produced in association with different national opinion polls meaning that there is no scope to carry out separate regional analyses based on these poll figures.

Thus constituency support estimates for different parties/groupings will be over-estimated in some constituencies and under-estimated in others, but the expectation would be that the overall national seat figures figures estimated will be relatively close to the true level, given that over-estimates in certain constituencies will be offset by under-estimates in others. Based on these estimated constituency support figures, I proceed to estimate the destination of seats in the different constituencies. The constituency level analysis involves the assigning seat levels to different parties and political groupings on the basis of constituency support estimates and simply using a d’Hondt method to determine which party wins the seats, while also taking account of the factors of vote transfers and vote splitting/management (based on vote transfer/management patterns observed in the February 2011 election). Due to unusually high/low support levels for some parties or political groupings in certain constituencies in the previous election, the model may throw up occasional constituency predictions that are unlikely to pan out in a “real election”, but of course the estimates here cannot be seen as highly accurate estimates of support levels at the constituency level as in a “real election” party support changes will vary significantly across constituency given uneven geographical shifts in support levels.

The point to remember here is that the ultimate aim of this model is to get an overall, national-level, estimate of seat numbers and these are based, as noted earlier, on the proviso that an over-prediction in one constituency may be offset by an under-prediction in another constituency. Based on such an analysis and using the new constituency units (as defined in the 2012 Constituency Commission report), these analyses estimates what party seat levels would be, should such national support trends be replicated in an actual general election. For a variety of reasons (including the impact of high levels of undecided voters in a specific poll), the actual result of an election may vary from the figures suggested by an opinion poll, even if the poll is carried out relatively close to election day, or on election day itself as in the case of exit polls, but the likelihood of such variation is not something that can be factored into this model. Vote transfer patterns of course cannot be accounted for in the constituency support estimate figures, but I do try to control for these somewhat in my set of amended seat allocations.

I have made some further corrections to the base support figures for the different parties for this analysis to take better account of the impacts on support of the 2012 Constituency Commission report boundary changes with especial reference to the Dublin constituencies. For instance, these figures better reflect the weaker positions of Fine Gael and Fianna Fail in Dublin Central after the moving out of the Ashtown area to Dublin West and the Botanic/Drumcondra area to Dublin North West, but also their stronger positions in Dublin West and Dublin North West. Fine Gael are assigned an extra seat in Dun Laoghaire on the basis that the Ceann Comhairle, Sean Barrett, will be automatically returned at the next general election (unless he decides to retire from politics before this) and this constituency will effectively be rendered a three-seat contest at the next general election. (Changes in constituency boundaries as outlined in the 2012 Constituency Commisison report have been factored in to this analysis. An overview of the political impacts of these changes (carried out in an earlier post) suggests that Fianna Fail would seem to be the party most likely to be positively effected by the redrawing of the constituency boundaries, with the Labour Party being the party likely to be the most adversely effected by these changes.)

Note that the approach used in this analysis is different to those of the constituency level analyses of the 2011-13 in that it now takes account of defections/changing party affiliations for people who were candidates in the 2011 General Election, as will be outlined in greater detail later in this post (and as such the seat estimates for this, and later posts, cannot be directly compared with those for the 2011, 2012 and Early 2013 analyses of post-General Election 2011 opinion polls). In cases where a General Election 2011 candidate has definitely left a party (or the independents ranks) to join another party or to become an independent, a portion of their 2011 will be taken away from the constituency base figures for their former party/grouping and added to those of their new party/grouping. The approach taken in the run up to the 2011 General Election was to assign all of the votes won by that candidate to their new grouping, but the actual 2011 results showed that this was an over-estimation of the likely impact of such changes. For instance the Labour Party constituency estimates for Mayo and Roscommon-South Leitrim following the moves of Jerry Cowley and John Kelly into the Labour Party ranks were well in excess of the actual votes won by that party in those constituencies. In this approach, half of the votes won by a candidate in the 2011 contest will be assigned to their new party/grouping while the rest of the votes will remain assigned to their old party/grouping. Where a constituency boundary change is involved, meaning that part(s) of a candidate’s old constituency is now moved into another constituency/other constituencies, the base figures for all these constituencies will be recalculated to take account of this. For instance, the impact of Peter Mathews leaving the Fine Gael ranks means that the Fine Gael and Non Party base figures are altered in Dublin Rathdown, but also in the Dublin South-West and Dun Laoghaire constituencies. Note that this approach will not take account of candidates who have lost the party whip but who may ultimately return to the party at a later date or who have been temporarily suspended from their party, as in the cases of Brian Walsh (Fine Gael, Galway West) or Peadar Toibin (Sinn Fein, Meath West). This approach also takes account of those candidates who did not win Dail seats at the 2011 contest, including people like David McGuinness (Dublin West), Fidelma Healy-Eames (Galway West), Eddie Fitzpatrick (Offaly), James Heffernan (Limerick), Jenny McHugh (Meath West) and Tom Fortune (Wicklow). In the wake of Patrick Nulty’s resignation from the Dáil, the correction made in Dublin West to the Labour and Independent/Non Party bases figures has now been reversed there. In the case of David McGuinness, his 2011 vote is undoubtedly a significant under-estimate of his potential vote (given that he was an obvious sweeper candidate for the late Brian Lenihan) while his by-election performances would probably over-estimate where his support levels would stand if accompanied by a running mate, such as Jack Chambers. An estimate lying midway between these two extremes has been applied (with some degree of caution!) in this analysis. As with the case of Patrick Nulty, this correction will be reversed in subsequent polls should it transpire that David McGuinness decides not to contest the next general election as an independent candidate (or indeed as a candidate for another party or grouping).

The constituency support estimates based on the Sunday Business Post-Red C poll (28th June 2015), when using the new constituency units (as to be used at the next general election), are as follows:

Constituency FF FG LB SF OTH Carlow-Kilkenny 34% 33% 6% 17% 10% Cavan-Monaghan 19% 27% 2% 41% 10% Clare 25% 34% 6% 6% 29% Cork East 23% 34% 14% 22% 7% Cork North Central 18% 22% 10% 26% 24% Cork North West 31% 42% 6% 14% 7% Cork South Central 34% 28% 7% 15% 15% Cork South West 29% 42% 6% 14% 9% Donegal 19% 17% 2% 42% 20% Dublin Central 17% 16% 11% 23% 33% Dublin Mid West 15% 27% 13% 23% 23% Dublin Fingal 18% 24% 10% 5% 42% Dublin Bay North 14% 22% 9% 15% 40% Dublin North West 13% 13% 10% 36% 28% Dublin Rathdown 10% 23% 6% 5% 56% Dublin South Central 11% 19% 14% 27% 28% Dublin Bay South 7% 21% 9% 14% 48% Dublin South West 13% 25% 13% 24% 26% Dublin West 13% 23% 12% 11% 40% Dun Laoghaire 19% 31% 12% 4% 34% Galway East 25% 35% 4% 9% 28% Galway West 21% 23% 4% 10% 41% Kerry County 13% 26% 6% 19% 36% Kildare North 18% 30% 12% 11% 28% Kildare South 27% 30% 11% 12% 20% Laois 33% 30% 5% 24% 8% Offaly 27% 20% 2% 10% 41% Limerick City 27% 36% 8% 14% 14% Limerick 22% 42% 3% 7% 26% Longford-Westmeath 24% 33% 10% 14% 19% Louth 16% 23% 6% 34% 21% Mayo 20% 54% 2% 12% 12% Meath East 24% 35% 8% 16% 16% Meath West 27% 35% 2% 28% 8% Roscommon-Galway 15% 23% 4% 9% 49% Sligo-Leitrim 24% 26% 3% 27% 20% Tipperary 16% 22% 6% 9% 47% Waterford 16% 31% 7% 17% 29% Wexford 22% 29% 8% 10% 31% Wicklow 11% 25% 5% 16% 43%

Based on these constituency estimates and using a d’Hondt method to determine which party wins the seats in a constituency, the party seat levels are estimated as follows:

Constituency FF FG LB SF OTH Carlow-Kilkenny 2 2 0 1 0 Cavan-Monaghan 1 1 0 2 0 Clare 1 2 0 0 1 Cork East 1 2 0 1 0 Cork North Central 1 1 0 1 1 Cork North West 1 2 0 0 0 Cork South Central 2 1 0 1 0 Cork South West 1 2 0 0 0 Donegal 1 1 0 2 1 Dublin Central 1 0 0 1 1 Dublin Mid West 1 1 0 1 1 Dublin Fingal 1 1 0 0 3 Dublin Bay North 1 1 0 1 2 Dublin North West 0 0 0 2 1 Dublin Rathdown 0 1 0 0 2 Dublin South Central 0 1 1 1 1 Dublin Bay South 0 1 0 0 3 Dublin South West 0 1 1 1 2 Dublin West 1 1 0 0 2 Dun Laoghaire 1 2 0 0 1 Galway East 1 1 0 0 1 Galway West 1 1 0 0 3 Kerry County 0 2 0 1 2 Kildare North 1 2 0 0 1 Kildare South 1 1 0 0 1 Laois 1 1 0 1 0 Offaly 1 0 0 0 2 Limerick City 1 2 0 1 0 Limerick 1 1 0 0 1 Longford-Westmeath 1 2 0 0 1 Louth 1 1 0 2 1 Mayo 1 3 0 0 0 Meath East 1 2 0 0 0 Meath West 1 1 0 1 0 Roscommon-Galway 0 1 0 0 2 Sligo-Leitrim 1 1 0 1 1 Tipperary 1 1 0 0 3 Waterford 1 1 0 1 1 Wexford 1 2 0 0 2 Wicklow 0 1 0 1 3 STATE 34 51 2 24 47

These estimates also need to take account of the candidate and competition trends unique to the different constituency. Amending the model to account for seats that may be won or lost on the basis of estimates here being based on support levels derived due to a large/small number of candidates contesting the election in 2011 (as in the large number of independent candidates competing in constituencies such as Wicklow or Laois-Offaly in 2011) or one candidate polling especially well in that election (e.g. the Shane Ross vote in Dublin South/Mick Wallace vote in Wexford) in a manner that would not amount to an extra seat for another member of the same party/grouping. Vote transfer patterns and vote management issues (e.g. discrepancies between votes won by party front runners and their running mates which would see potential seat wins fall out of a party’s hands) also need to be accounted for. Taking these concerns into account, the amended seat allocations across the constituencies would look more like this:

Constituency FF FG LB SF OTH Carlow-Kilkenny 2 2 0 1 0 Cavan-Monaghan 1 1 0 2 0 Clare 1 2 0 0 1 Cork East 1 2 0 1 0 Cork North Central 1 1 0 1 1 Cork North West 1 2 0 0 0 Cork South Central 2 2 0 0 0 Cork South West 1 2 0 0 0 Donegal 1 1 0 2 1 Dublin Central 0 1 0 1 1 Dublin Mid West 1 1 0 1 1 Dublin Fingal 1 1 1 0 2 Dublin Bay North 1 1 0 1 2 Dublin North West 0 0 0 2 1 Dublin Rathdown 0 1 0 0 2 Dublin South Central 0 1 1 1 1 Dublin Bay South 0 1 0 1 2 Dublin South West 1 1 1 1 1 Dublin West 1 1 0 0 2 Dun Laoghaire 1 2 0 0 1 Galway East 1 1 0 0 1 Galway West 1 2 0 0 3 Kerry County 1 1 0 1 2 Kildare North 1 2 0 0 1 Kildare South 1 1 0 0 1 Laois 1 1 0 1 0 Offaly 1 1 0 0 1 Limerick City 1 2 0 1 0 Limerick 1 1 0 0 1 Longford-Westmeath 1 2 0 1 0 Louth 1 1 0 2 1 Mayo 1 3 0 0 0 Meath East 1 2 0 0 0 Meath West 1 1 0 1 0 Roscommon-Galway 0 1 0 0 2 Sligo-Leitrim 1 1 0 1 1 Tipperary 1 1 0 0 3 Waterford 1 1 0 1 1 Wexford 1 2 0 0 2 Wicklow 0 2 0 1 2 STATE 35 55 3 25 40 % Seats 22.2 34.8 1.9 15.8 25.3

There are, of course, quite a number of constituencies where – on the basis of the constituency estimates calculated – the final seat, or final seats, would be very close to call. For instance, in the case of Dublin West – especially in the wake of the David McGuinness defection – the final two seats here look like being a toss up between Fianna Fail, Sinn Fein, Labour and the Independents and Others grouping (with Fine Gael and the Anti-Austerity Alliance probably looking well placed to take the first two seats there).

Based on these seat estimates, a Fine Gael-Labour (combined seat level of 58 seats) would be a good distance short of the number of seats required to form a government (79 seats). However, it is worth noting that an agreed transfer pact between these parties could well ensure that their combined seat levels would be some degree in excess of this 56-seat level – especially if the support levels for Opposition parties and candidates in different constituencies proved to be especially fractured across a number of different parties and independent candidates. A potential Sinn Fein-Fianna Fail alliance (combined seat level of 60 seats) would also be some distance short of this 79-seat target. A Fine Gael and Sinn Fein pairing would, on these estimates, would exceed the number of seats required to form a government (combined seat level of 80 seats), but such an alliance looks highly unlikely in the present political climate. A potential Fine Gael-Fianna Fail alliance would amount to the other two-party alliance capable of mustering just enough seats to form a two-party coalition government without needing the support of other Dail deputies (with a combined seat level of 90 seats). Two-party coalitions are proving to be difficult to form in this analysis (as with most of the poll analyses engaged in since Summer 2o14) due to the very strong support levels for the Independents and Others grouping that is evident in this poll.

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The constituency support estimates based on the Sunday Independent-Millward Brown poll (28th June 2015), when using the new constituency units (as to be used at the next general election), are as follows:

Constituency FF FG LB SF OTH Carlow-Kilkenny 36% 32% 5% 19% 7% Cavan-Monaghan 21% 26% 1% 44% 7% Clare 29% 36% 5% 7% 23% Cork East 25% 34% 11% 25% 5% Cork North Central 21% 23% 8% 30% 18% Cork North West 33% 41% 5% 15% 5% Cork South Central 38% 28% 6% 17% 11% Cork South West 32% 41% 5% 15% 7% Donegal 21% 16% 2% 46% 15% Dublin Central 20% 17% 9% 27% 27% Dublin Mid West 17% 28% 11% 26% 17% Dublin Fingal 23% 27% 9% 6% 35% Dublin Bay North 17% 24% 8% 19% 33% Dublin North West 15% 13% 9% 42% 22% Dublin Rathdown 13% 26% 6% 6% 49% Dublin South Central 13% 19% 13% 32% 22% Dublin Bay South 9% 24% 9% 18% 41% Dublin South West 15% 26% 11% 28% 20% Dublin West 16% 26% 11% 14% 33% Dun Laoghaire 23% 34% 11% 5% 28% Galway East 28% 36% 3% 10% 22% Galway West 26% 25% 4% 12% 34% Kerry County 15% 28% 5% 23% 29% Kildare North 22% 32% 11% 13% 22% Kildare South 31% 31% 10% 14% 15% Laois 35% 28% 4% 26% 6% Offaly 32% 22% 1% 12% 33% Limerick City 30% 36% 7% 16% 11% Limerick 26% 44% 3% 8% 20% Longford-Westmeath 27% 34% 8% 16% 14% Louth 18% 23% 5% 38% 16% Mayo 22% 54% 2% 14% 9% Meath East 27% 35% 7% 19% 12% Meath West 28% 33% 2% 31% 6% Roscommon-Galway 18% 26% 3% 12% 41% Sligo-Leitrim 26% 26% 2% 31% 15% Tipperary 20% 24% 5% 11% 39% Waterford 19% 32% 6% 20% 23% Wexford 26% 30% 7% 12% 24% Wicklow 14% 27% 5% 20% 35%

Based on these constituency estimates and using a d’Hondt method to determine which party wins the seats in a constituency, the party seat levels are estimated as follows:

Constituency FF FG LB SF OTH Carlow-Kilkenny 2 2 0 1 0 Cavan-Monaghan 1 1 0 2 0 Clare 1 2 0 0 1 Cork East 1 2 0 1 0 Cork North Central 1 1 0 1 1 Cork North West 1 2 0 0 0 Cork South Central 2 1 0 1 0 Cork South West 1 2 0 0 0 Donegal 1 1 0 3 0 Dublin Central 1 0 0 1 1 Dublin Mid West 1 1 0 1 1 Dublin Fingal 1 2 0 0 2 Dublin Bay North 1 1 0 1 2 Dublin North West 0 0 0 2 1 Dublin Rathdown 0 1 0 0 2 Dublin South Central 0 1 0 2 1 Dublin Bay South 0 1 0 1 2 Dublin South West 1 1 0 2 1 Dublin West 1 1 0 0 2 Dun Laoghaire 1 2 0 0 1 Galway East 1 1 0 0 1 Galway West 2 1 0 0 2 Kerry County 1 1 0 1 2 Kildare North 1 2 0 0 1 Kildare South 2 1 0 0 0 Laois 1 1 0 1 0 Offaly 1 1 0 0 1 Limerick City 1 2 0 1 0 Limerick 1 2 0 0 0 Longford-Westmeath 1 2 0 1 0 Louth 1 1 0 3 0 Mayo 1 3 0 0 0 Meath East 1 1 0 1 0 Meath West 1 1 0 1 0 Roscommon-Galway 0 1 0 0 2 Sligo-Leitrim 1 1 0 2 0 Tipperary 1 1 0 0 3 Waterford 1 1 0 1 1 Wexford 1 2 0 1 1 Wicklow 1 1 0 1 2 STATE 39 52 0 33 34

These estimates also need to take account of the candidate and competition trends unique to the different constituency. Amending the model to account for seats that may be won or lost on the basis of estimates here being based on support levels derived due to a large/small number of candidates contesting the election in 2011 (as in the large number of independent candidates competing in constituencies such as Wicklow or Laois-Offaly in 2011) or one candidate polling especially well in that election (e.g. the Shane Ross vote in Dublin South/Mick Wallace vote in Wexford) in a manner that would not amount to an extra seat for another member of the same party/grouping. Vote transfer patterns and vote management issues (e.g. discrepancies between votes won by party front runners and their running mates which would see potential seat wins fall out of a party’s hands) also need to be accounted for. Taking these concerns into account, the amended seat allocations across the constituencies would look more like this:

Constituency FF FG LB SF OTH Carlow-Kilkenny 2 2 0 1 0 Cavan-Monaghan 1 1 0 2 0 Clare 1 2 0 0 1 Cork East 1 2 0 1 0 Cork North Central 1 1 0 2 0 Cork North West 1 2 0 0 0 Cork South Central 2 1 0 1 0 Cork South West 1 2 0 0 0 Donegal 1 1 0 3 0 Dublin Central 0 1 0 1 1 Dublin Mid West 1 2 0 1 0 Dublin Fingal 1 2 0 0 2 Dublin Bay North 1 1 0 1 2 Dublin North West 0 0 0 2 1 Dublin Rathdown 0 1 0 0 2 Dublin South Central 0 1 0 2 1 Dublin Bay South 0 1 0 1 2 Dublin South West 1 1 1 1 1 Dublin West 1 1 0 0 2 Dun Laoghaire 1 2 0 0 1 Galway East 1 2 0 0 0 Galway West 2 1 0 0 3 Kerry County 1 2 0 1 1 Kildare North 1 2 0 0 1 Kildare South 1 2 0 0 0 Laois 1 1 0 1 0 Offaly 1 1 0 0 1 Limerick City 1 2 0 1 0 Limerick 1 2 0 0 0 Longford-Westmeath 1 2 0 1 0 Louth 1 1 0 3 0 Mayo 1 3 0 0 0 Meath East 1 1 0 1 0 Meath West 1 1 0 1 0 Roscommon-Galway 0 1 0 0 2 Sligo-Leitrim 1 1 0 2 0 Tipperary 1 1 0 0 3 Waterford 1 1 0 1 1 Wexford 1 2 0 1 1 Wicklow 1 1 0 1 2 STATE 37 57 1 33 30 % Seats 23.4 36.1 0.6 20.9 19.0

Based on these seat estimates, a Fine Gael-Labour (combined seat level of 58 seats) would be a good distance short of the number of seats required to form a government (79 seats). However, it is worth noting that an agreed transfer pact between these parties could well ensure that their combined seat levels would be some degree in excess of this 56-seat level – especially if the support levels for Opposition parties and candidates in different constituencies proved to be especially fractured across a number of different parties and independent candidates. A potential Fianna Fail-Sinn Fein alliance (combined seat level of 70 seats) would also be ten seat short short of this 79-seat target. A Fine Gael and Sinn Fein pairing would, on these estimates, would comfortably exceed the number of seats required to form a government (combined seat level of 90 seats), but such an alliance looks highly unlikely in the present political climate. A potential Fine Gael-Fianna Fail alliance would amount to the other two-party alliance capable of mustering just enough seats to form a two-party coalition government without needing the support of other Dail deputies (with a combined seat level of 94 seats). Two-party coalitions have proven to be difficult to form in this analysis (as with most of the poll analyses engaged in since Summer 2o14) due to the very strong support levels for the Independents and Others grouping evident across these opinion polls. The potential of robust two-party coalitions seems more feasible in this poll, however, as the Independent and Others’ support levels have fallen somewhat in this.

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Given the dramatically improved support levels for Sinn Fein relative to the 2011 General Election, as especially evident in this analysis, the seat estimates based on these constituency-level analyses suggest a significant improvement in that party’s seat levels relative to those won by the party at the 2011 contest (especially given that the fact that the eight fewer seats in the next Dail has been factored into this analysis), effectively pointing to significant gains on the part of the main Dail Opposition parties since 2011. It is worth noting that, on the basis of this analysis, Sinn Fein would also be competing strongly for seats in a number of other constituencies as well, such as Cork North West, Cork South-West, Dublin West and Longford-Westmeath. Fianna Fail support levels in this poll are seen to be just a few percentage points higher than their 2011 support levels, but the favourable changes made (in their perspective) in the 2012 Constituency Commssion report, in addition to the impact of the loss of support for the government parties, means that the party would be almost doubling their Dail seat numbers if these support levels were to be replicated at the next general election.

The same trend very applies very much to the Independents and Others grouping, but it is worth noting that, as opposed to the parties, the Independents and Others grouping is a very broad church and includes a range of parties, groups and individuals with very different ideological perspectives, including the Socialist Party and the People Before Profit alliance as well as left-leaning independents, but also politicians located in the centre-right of the political spectrum, including a significant number of Fianna Fail/Fine Gael-gene pool independents and people such as Shane Ross and Stephen Donnelly. Looking at the constituencies where this grouping is predicted to win seats in this model, it can be seen that left-leaning parties and independents would take at least 24 of the 39 seats being assigned to this grouping in the Sunday Business Post-Red C poll and 16 of the 30 seats being assigned to this grouping in the Sunday Independent-Millward Brown poll.

The seat level estimates in all of the recent poll analyses for the Labour Party have been stark (highlighting the fact that the PR-STV system is proportional, but only to a limited extent), although this Sunday Times-Behaviour & Attitudes poll (as with the latest Red C poll) does offer somewhat better news for that party. Previous analyses have, moreover, suggested that, especially given the increased competition on the Left from Sinn Fein, other smaller left of centre parties and left-leaning independents, that it will be a struggle for Labour to win seats in most, if not all, constituencies if the party’s national support levels fall below the ten percent level, as has been shown in similar analyses of most recent polls. The further the party falls below this ten percent level, the more problems Labour faces in terms of winning seats. Labour would be in serious trouble if their national support levels fall below ten percent as the party is also facing a “perfect storm” from electoral geography and changed competition levels. These factors include the reduction in Dail seat numbers (from 166 to 158) and other changes made to general election boundaries by the 2012 Constituency Commission (which militated against Labour while seeming to advantage other parties, but notably Fianna Fail) as well as the increased competition the party now faces on the Left from Sinn Fein, other smaller left-wing parties and left-of-centre independents, as well as from Fianna Fail. When Labour support levels fell to similarly low levels in the late 1990s and early-to-mid 2000s, the party was in a position to be helped (as in the 1997, 2002 and 2007 General Elections) by transfers from lower placed candidates from the smaller left-wing parties. But on these constituency-estimate figures outlined in these analyses Labour Party candidates would find themselves polling below candidates from Sinn Fein, the Socialist Party, the Workers and Unemployed Action Group or the People Before Profit Alliance, or left-leaning independents, in a number of constituencies. Instead of being in a position to possibly benefit from vote transfers (which themselves would be likely to dry up in any case), the Labour candidates would now in a number of cases be eliminated before the final count and would be providing the transfers to see candidates from other left-of-centre political groupings over the line. (If we look at the 1987 case study – we see Labour won 6.5% of the vote in the 1987 General Election and won 12 seats, but it is also worth noting that they did not contest nine constituencies in that election, whereas their 7% national vote is being distributed across all forty constituencies in this analysis, as with the most recent general elections in which Labour has contested all constituencies. In two of the twelve constituencies in 1987 where Labour won seats – Dublin South-Central, Dublin South-West, Galway West and Wexford – vote transfers were crucial in ensuring Labour won these these seats – i.e. Labour candidates were outside the seat positions on the first count but overtook candidates with higher first preference votes as counts progressed due to transfers from other candidates.

Constituency FPV Total Poll Quota % FPV Lab/quota Carlow-Kilkenny 7,358 57,485 9,581 12.80 0.77 Cork South-Central 4,862 56,259 9,377 8.64 0.52 Dublin South-Central 4,701 51,692 8,616 9.09 0.55 Dublin South-East 3,480 38,270 7,655 9.09 0.45 Dublin South-West 5,065 41,454 8,291 12.22 0.61 Dun Laoghaire 6,484 55,702 9,284 11.64 0.70 Galway West 3,878 52,762 8,794 7.35 0.44 Kerry North 6,739 34,764 8,692 19.38 0.78 Kildare 7,567 53,705 8,951 14.09 0.85 Louth 6,205 46,809 9,362 13.26 0.66 Wexford 5,086 52,922 8,821 9.61 0.58 Wicklow 7,754 46,003 9,201 16.86 0.84

Voting statistics for constituencies in which Labour won seats at the 1987 General Election. The table above shows that there was no constituency in 1987 in which a Labour candidate exceeded the quota and indeed successful Labour candidates, Ruairi Quinn and Michael D. Higgins won seats in their constituencies despite winning less than half of the quota in their first preference votes. In addition, Dick Spring came within a handful of votes of losing his seat in Kerry North.)