A majority of votes want the incoming government to keep the 2:1 spending on public transport vs roads, which was set, and an even clearer majority think the new government will not do enough to meet Ireland’s climate change commitments, according to a poll published in the Sunday Independent yesterday.
Pressure is coming from independents supporting the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael as well as elements within the parties to switch towards more spending roads at a time when large-scale projects such as MetroLink, Dart+, Cork regional rail expansion, and BusConnects are really to be funded or coming close to their construction stages.
However, in the Sunday Independent yesterday, Kevin Cunningham, managing director of polling company Ireland Thinks and political lecturer, described climate change as one of the incoming government’s “political stumbling blocks.”
In the wider political poll, 50% of voters said that the 2:1 ratio of spending on public transport to roads should be maintained, compared to 30% who opposed keeping the focus on public transport.
Voters were also asked, “Do you believe the new government will do enough to meet Ireland’s climate change commitments?”. 57% said no, 27% said yes, and the remainder didn’t know.
Cunningham said: “The poor performance of the Green Party has generated a narrative that voters wish to shift backwards on this issue. Indeed, in coalescing with Regional Independents, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael will invariably be pressured to move away from the last government. However, such a move would direct the government far away from the median voter and play into the hands of the opposition.”
“Our data today shows this is not where the electorate is at. The evidence instead suggests that by 50pc to 30pc, voters want to maintain the 2-to-1 ratio of investment in public transport infrastructure over roads and that by 57pc to 27pc they do not believe the next government will do enough on the climate crisis,” he said.