Fine Gael is on course to retain its two seats in Ireland East with a ballot paper Euro constituency poll conducted by RedC for the Sunday Business Post showing John Paul Phelan is on 15 per cent and Nessa Childers is on 14 per cent.
Fine Gael Ireland East director of elections, Billy Timmins TD, said the numbers, which were not published in the paper on Sunday, were supplied to Fine Gael after the weekend and indicate that John Paul Phelan is well positioned to take a second seat in Ireland East with his running mate, Mairead McGuinness MEP.
Commenting on the Red C/Sunday Business Post poll findings, Timmins said;
"There is clearly momentum building behind the Fine Gael campaign in Ireland East. If John Paul Phelan can poll close to 15 per cent on June 5, Fine Gael is in position to retain our two seats in Ireland East.
“The Phelan campaign has been focusing on the issues that really matter to the voters in Ireland East - jobs, farm incomes, small business support, the cost of living for families - and he is clearly connecting with the voters as a result. The survey in the Sunday Business Post confirms that.
“The published poll on Sunday showed Fine Gael polling 34 per cent at a national level in the European elections survey, while Fianna Fail were at 20 per cent and Labour at 14 per cent.
"The RedC/Business Post poll indicates that Childers and Aylward will be fighting for the last seat and Phelan taking the second seat. These numbers throw this East constituency wide open and suggest that both Fine Gael seats can be retained.
“There is a lot of hard campaigning to be done in Ireland East to get John Paul Phelan over the line. For that to happen, Fine Gael voters will have to be very disciplined in their vote management. In the south of Leinster we need votes for John Paul Phelan. It is as simple as that,” Timmins concluded.
