Adams’ sinks, Sinn Fein floats…

WHILE Gerry Adams’ popularity has sunk to an ‘all time low’, support for Sinn Fein remains practically unchanged, according to an Irish Independent poll.UTV reported:

The poll asked a cross-section of the Irish public a number of questions, among them:

“Do you believe or not that Sinn Féin was reponsible for the breakdown of the northern peace process in December 2004 by refusing to allow photographs of weapons being decommussionsed?” to which 46% replied that they thought so, 39% replied they did not and 15% said they did not know or had no opinion.

When asked if it was “likely that Sinn Féin would publically insist that the IRA decommission all its weapons and break totally with criminality” 49% of those asked said it was unlikely, with 33% saying it is likely and 18% not knowing.

On the most contentious questions arising from the “political turbulance” of the past number of weeks, 62% said they agreed with “the Irish government`s belief that Sinn Féin and the IRA are one and the same organisation” and 46% said they areed with Justice Minister Michael McDowell`s statement that three senior members of Sinn Féin are also members of the IRA army council.

The same number also said the minister should sanction the men`s arrests if he thought they were linked to the outlaw oraganisation.

62% of voters also said they believed that, until recently, the Irish government had been “too soft” on IRA criminality.

In an overwhelmingly expressed opinion, 74% of people said they thought the Irish government should name businesses suspected to be backed by IRA money.

While support for Sinn Féin has not dropped appreciably, falling only one percentage point to 9%, Gerry Adams personal approval rating now ranks him as the least popular leader of any party sitting in the Dáil, having plummeted from 52% in October of 2002 to just 31% for February of this year.

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