Martin: FF not facing wipeout
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin today said he does not share the view his party faces a wipeout in next week's election, after a plummet in support in the latest opinion poll.
Arriving for today's debate As Gaeilge on TG4, Mr Martin was facing questions about the latest poll, published in this morning's Irish Independent, which sees FF support drop from 16% to 12% in just two weeks - under his stewardship.
However he is not accepting it means wipeout at the polls on Friday week.
"If you look back at the last election campaign there was a very significant shift in the last 10 days of that campaign, and we are going to go at this hard over the next number of days," he said.
"It's interesting that… there seems to be some significant differences between the national polls and some of the constituency polls that we are getting back."
For Enda Kenny the story couldn't be much different.
Support for Fine Gael has climbed by eight points to 38% and puts the party ever closer to an overall majority.
But careful not to be seen getting too excited about an opinion poll, Mr Kenny was not saying much this morning.
"My message to the people is that Fine Gael have a five-point plan to get this country working," he said.
"We will sell that message to the people of the country on the 25th of February.
"They make the choice, they are the masters, this is decision time."
Meanwhile Labour leader Eamon Gilmore has said he is pleased with today's poll that sees Labour support slip a point.
"We have strong candidates in every constituency and we are widening our support base," he said.
Mr Gilmore also said that he believed Labour could win two seats in the urban constituencies where his partry's power base was strongest.
The three leaders have now recorded the country's first election debate in Irish - which will be broadcast with subtitles on TG4 at 7 tonight.
