{"id":473531,"date":"2026-05-07T19:31:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T19:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/473531\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T19:31:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T19:31:13","slug":"fine-gael-independent-ireland-and-labour-in-strongest-contention-for-galway-west-seat-poll-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/473531\/","title":{"rendered":"Fine Gael, Independent Ireland and Labour in strongest contention for Galway West seat \u2013 poll \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fine Gael\u2019s<\/a> Se\u00e1n Kyne holds the slimmest of leads over Independent Ireland<\/a> rival Noel Thomas in the Galway West<\/a> byelection campaign, according to an Irish Times\/TG4 opinion poll in the constituency.<\/p>\n

The poll, carried out by Ipsos<\/a> B&A, also shows a strong performance by Labour\u2019s<\/a> Helen Ogbu, who is, at this stage, the leading candidate of a large but scattered left-wing vote.<\/p>\n

Neither Fianna F\u00e1il<\/a> candidate Cillian Keane nor the Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> candidate, Mark Lohan, is likely to challenge for the seat, with support for each registering in single digits. <\/p>\n

The findings of the poll on first preference votes show Kyne at 17 per cent followed by Thomas on 16 per cent and Ogbu on 12 per cent.<\/p>\n

They are followed by M\u00edde Nic Fhionnlaoich of the Social Democrats<\/a> on 9 per cent, Keane on 8 per cent and Independent Mike Cubbard on 7 per cent.<\/p>\n

Lohan follows on 7 per cent with Niall Murphy of the Green Party<\/a> on 6 per cent, Independent Thomas Welby on 6 per cent and Orla Nugent of Aont\u00fa<\/a> on 4 per cent.<\/p>\n

At the back of the pack are Independent Sheila Garrity on 3 per cent and People Before Profit-Solidarity\u2019s<\/a> Denman Rooke on 2 per cent. <\/p>\n

The remaining candidates attracted 1 per cent support or less, according to the opinion poll.<\/p>\n

As expected, it is clear that transfers will decide the outcome of the election. The poll suggests Kyne has an advantage on that front, with a significant lead over Thomas when voters are asked about their second preferences. <\/p>\n

However, with 17 candidates in the field, there are likely to be many counts before the seat is filled.<\/p>\n

With a combined 39 per cent of first preference votes, effective transfers between the parties would put whoever emerges as the leading candidate of the left-wing parties \u2013 currently Labour\u2019s Ogbu \u2013 in a strong position.<\/p>\n

The poll suggests Ogbu will also perform strongly on transfers. Her closest rival on the left is likely to be Nic Fhionnlaoich of the Soc Dems.<\/p>\n

It is clear there is a strong anti-Government mood on the ground; just 20 per cent of respondents in the poll said they were satisfied with the Government\u2019s handling of the fuel crisis, while two-thirds of voters (67 per cent) said they were dissatisfied. <\/p>\n

Candidates\u2019 stance on the fuel protests<\/a> \u2013 with which Thomas was closely associated \u2013 will be a significant influence on the election. More than a third of voters (35 per cent) said it would influence their vote a lot, with a further 32 per cent saying it would influence their vote somewhat.<\/p>\n

Asked about the most important issue for Galway<\/a> for them, the top choice among those polled was \u201croads\u201d, including the plans for a bypass for the city, on 27 per cent, followed by housing (26 per cent), the cost of living (11 per cent) and public transport (8 per cent).<\/p>\n

The survey was conducted by telephone among a sample consisting of 530 adults aged 18 upwards in the Galway West constituency on behalf of TG4 and The Irish Times by Ipsos B&A. <\/p>\n

Interviews took place between Friday, May 1st, and Tuesday, May 5th. The margin of error is about plus or minus four percentage points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fine Gael\u2019s Se\u00e1n Kyne holds the slimmest of leads over Independent Ireland rival Noel Thomas in the Galway…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,207345,2190,18,13,14,4771,553,189695,1878,167920,18577,6,19,7062,75915,17,38418,9171,11,12,15,16,5,27171,47,18578,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-473531","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-byelection","11":"tag-cost-of-living","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-featured-news","14":"tag-featurednews","15":"tag-fianna-fail","16":"tag-fine-gael","17":"tag-fuel-protests","18":"tag-galway","19":"tag-galway-west-constituency","20":"tag-green-party","21":"tag-headlines","22":"tag-ie","23":"tag-independent-ireland","24":"tag-ipsos","25":"tag-ireland","26":"tag-irish-times-poll","27":"tag-labour-party","28":"tag-latest-news","29":"tag-latestnews","30":"tag-main-news","31":"tag-mainnews","32":"tag-news","33":"tag-people-before-profit-solidarity-pbps","34":"tag-sinn-fein","35":"tag-social-democrats","36":"tag-top-stories","37":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}