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Seven in 10 people want Michael D Higgins reelected

A new opinion poll puts the incumbent well out in front.

4/10/2018 Presidential Elections Campaigns Starts Begins Election posters for Liadh Ní Riada and Michael D Higgins. Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie / RollingNews.ie

SEVEN IN 10 voters want Michael D Higgins to be reelected president.

The incumbent candidate has consistently polled well and increased his support by 3% since a similar opinion poll last month

The results of a Red C poll carried out on behalf of Paddy Power were announced on Today with Sean O’Rourke this morning.

Here are the support levels for each candidate:

  • Michael D Higgins 70%
  • Sean Gallagher 14%
  • Joan Freeman 6%
  • Liadh Ní Riada 5%
  • Gavin Duffy 4%
  • Peter Casey 1%

1,000 adults were interviewed over the phone between 3 and 10 October for the poll, and 8% of voters are undecided. The margin of error is 3%.

Higgins was the preferred candidate for the majority of voters from Fine Gael (78%), Fianna Fáil (58%), Labour (85%), Sinn Féin (55%, despite the party running its own candidate, Ní Riada) and people who voted for independents (85%). 

He has over 60% support across most age groups, with 83% support among 18-34-year-olds. His support is also national – with 79% support in Dublin, 70% in the rest of Leinster, 67% in Munster and 63% in Connacht/Ulster.

Political parties

The poll also questioned people’s preferences in terms of political parties. Fine Gael retains the highest level of support at 32%, down one point from last month.

Fianna Fáil increased its support by five points, up to 27%. Sinn Féin is unchanged on 14%, while Labour dropped one point to 5%.

Independents are down one point to 12%, while the Independent Alliance are also down one point to 3%.

Solidarity/People Before Profit are unchanged at 2%. The Social Democrats are down one point to 1% and the Green Party is up one point to 3%. Others are unchanged on 1%.

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    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Rob Munnelly
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    Sep 17th 2015, 9:08 PM

    This might be the poorest informed article I’ve read on an Apple release in a while.

    1) Doubling the ram is something just “does” in its phones, almost year on year.

    2) 2GB of ram wasn’t a surprise, it was widely speculated and assumed that would be the case.

    3) Extra ram, on iOS, doesn’t really affect how apps run in the background; it allows larger apps to run more processes in the foreground. That means better graphics in a game because it can load more triangles / drawing processes etc.

    4) Cramming 4gb of ram into something with a mobile chip doesn’t make it as powerful as a laptop, it just has as much ram as one. A lot of these things still run on really crappy processors, and Android is a one-for-all operating system – it’s not built to get the most out of any 1 combination of processor make / speed / model, combined with a ram / speed / make / model. So you can’t really compare them based on the headline number of a single part of it.

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    Mute Byyys
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    Sep 17th 2015, 7:16 PM

    Apple also launched it’s first Android APP called ‘Move to iOS’ yesterday on Google Play as part of the iOS 9 launch…. It got blasted with over 8 thousand 1 star reviews (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apple.movetoios) Most of the reviews are just rants against Apple.

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    Mute John Lawless
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    Sep 17th 2015, 7:24 PM

    I thought Apple Music was the first Apple app released on Android?

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    Mute Byyys
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    Sep 17th 2015, 9:15 PM

    John… Aside from Beats Music for Android, which Apple acquired, this is the company’s first Android APP. Apple didn’t announce ‘Move to iOS’ at WWDC 2015. Instead, the APP was quietly listed on Apple’s What’s new in iOS page the same day.

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    Mute john
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    Sep 17th 2015, 8:22 PM

    My vodafone smart ultra 6 has 2gb Ram and lots of other stuff the iphone 6s has and it only cost me €170!! The only thing it doesnt have is the apple logo on the back :( I’ll just have to live with not being cool!

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    Mute Brendan
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    Sep 17th 2015, 8:54 PM

    Funny enough when I see someone flashing the apple logo on their phone or laptop/tablet I just think knob!!!

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    Mute Paul Lanigan
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    Sep 17th 2015, 11:29 PM

    boulder on your shoulder Brendan

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    Mute Carlin Ite
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    Sep 18th 2015, 7:52 AM

    I have a MacBook Pro. I will never use a windows laptop again.

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    Mute Jonny Lennon
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    Sep 17th 2015, 8:04 PM

    The Journal.. Sponsored by Apple!!!

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    Mute Anon Ymous
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    Sep 18th 2015, 12:46 AM

    I updated my iPhone 5 to iOS9 today. Purely by chance I discovered that, with this new update, it automatically starts your 3 month free trial with Apple Music and – in the small print – after the 3 month trial is up, Apple will start charging your account. I wouldn’t have known this only a friend and I were chatting about Apple Music this evening and I had a quick look at it. I have never signed up for the free trial so am really Annoyed by it.

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    Mute Sean 
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    Sep 18th 2015, 3:29 PM

    Well it hasn’t opted me in on any of my devices not any of my friends I have checked with so you must just be unlucky

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    Mute Jim Rodgers
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    Sep 19th 2015, 12:57 PM

    Surely you seen this nugget of information in the 400 pages of terms and conditions that you read before agreeing to iOS9 ;-)

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    Mute Seamus McSpud
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    Sep 17th 2015, 8:30 PM

    During testing of iOS9 it was discovered that there is an issue for users who use custom Access Point Names (APN) to access their corporate networks.
    This could affect some customers using Vodafone Office Access, Vodafone Data Control or customers who have custom-built APNs.
    The impact it may have is that if a user upgrades to iOS9 they may lose complete data connectivity.

    As a precaution we strongly recommend that any users who use custom APNs, Vodafone Office Access or Vodafone Data Control do not upgrade to iOS9, until further notice. We understand that Apple are working on a fix.

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