Fine Gael continues to lead the farming vote, the latest Irish Farmers Journal survey has shown. The party’s level of support has increased slightly over the last two surveys and now stands at 37%.

This puts Fine Gael well ahead of Fianna Fáil, which can call on the support of 23% of farmers, a figure that is unchanged on the previous two surveys.

Sinn Féin continues to struggle to increase its support base among farmers. Having slowly risen to 16% by last June, that figure dropped in September to 13%, and has fallen slightly again in this survey to 12%.

Independents actually claim more support than Sinn Féin, and almost as much as Fianna Fáil, commanding 19% of the farming vote.

The Green Party and Aontú are at 2%, with Labour, People Before Profit and the Social Democrats on 1% each.

The picture is also largely unchanged from surveys and polls conducted by the Irish Farmers Journal in recent years when it comes to regional and sectoral voting intentions among farmers.

Fine Gael performs the best among tillage and dairy farmers and Fianna Fáil is most popular among beef and tillage farmers.

Both poll poorest among sheep farmers. Sinn Féin, in contrast, is best supported by sheep farmers.

McConalogue rising

Approval ratings for Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue continue to rise. In our survey, there was a notable increase in his support levels.

Those viewing him positively have increased by seven points to 37% since September. This is a 16-point increase on his positive rating in June.

The percentage of farmers viewing McConalogue negatively has dropped by four points to 27%.

Again, it’s a big improvement on his performance in June, when his negative rating was 43%, 16 percentage points worse.