[ad_1]
Most people expect the pandemic to worsen and only a fifth of voters believe the current restrictions are too severe, according to the latest Irish Times / Ipsos MRBI opinion poll.
A clear majority of voters (58 percent) say the government is “doing a good job” in managing the pandemic, but that number has dropped dramatically since the last poll in June, as the country was opening up.
The number of voters who say the government is “not doing a good job” has risen, from 9% in June to 36%.
Just under half of all voters (45 percent) say the current level of restrictions is “correct,” while 21 percent say there are too many restrictions that are “unnecessarily hurting businesses and the economy.” However, almost a third of voters (32%) are in favor of additional restrictions and say that the current level of restrictions is not sufficient to “safeguard the health of the population.”
The public mood about the future with Covid is quite pessimistic. Only 22% of people believe that the worst of the pandemic is behind us, while 69% say that “the worst is yet to come”. Older people are significantly more pessimistic about the future than younger voters, while women are also more likely than men to say that the worst is yet to come.
Priorities
When asked about their priorities for next week’s budget, the pandemic also weighs on people’s opinions. Investment in health service is the most popular option for additional public spending, followed by investment in housing, schools, hospitals, and other infrastructure. Given a list of options where they believed additional spending should be prioritized in the Budget, “green initiatives” were the number one option for only 4% of respondents.
Voters also support TDs’ decision to vote in favor of the Dying with Dignity Bill on Wednesday night, which, if passed, will legalize someone helping a terminally ill person end their own life.
More than half of all voters (52 percent) say they are in favor of legalizing health care for someone to end their own life, with only 17 percent against. More than a quarter of those surveyed (26 percent) say they are undecided but “open to hearing both sides of the argument.”
The bill was first passed in the Dáil on Wednesday night, when the TDs also rejected a government amendment to halt its progress for a year and allow a special Dáil committee to consider the issue of assisted death.
The survey was conducted Saturday through Tuesday, October 3-6, through in-home interviews of 1,200 adults at 120 locations in each district. The level of precision is estimated to be plus or minus 2.8 percent. This survey saw a return to the usual face-to-face methodology, after the June survey was conducted via telephone interviews due to the pandemic.
[ad_2]