The now-concluded presidential election has been particularly damaging for the current main government parties, coming on the heels of a negative reaction to a budget that – in sharp contrast to the preceding two – was less generous to the ordinary voter.

Firstly, there is how poorly the whole campaign reflects on them individually as parties, with Jim Gavin dropping out after being pushed by the Fianna Fail leadership, and how poorly Heather Humphries appears to have performed among the electorate.

Fianna Fáil support has fallen again to 17 per cent while Fine Gael remains becalmed on 19 per cent, leaving their combined support at just 36 per cent and on course to be booted out of office at the next election, whenever it occurs.

But secondly, and perhaps more importantly in the long term, it has given further proof points and confidence to the left alliance, that if they work together on common ground, they can defeat the government quite easily.

Catherine Connolly’s election as the 10th president is clear evidence that a left alliance of parties working together in Irish politics can have real impact on the political landscape here.

Some early signs of the impact a left alliance of parties, working more closely together on certain issues, could have was first seen when the current government was first elected late in 2024.

In the early weeks after the election, the left-leaning opposition parties joined together to oppose the governments on speaking rights. They successfully fought off the government’s plans to allocate opposition speaking time to independent candidates that were supporting the government.

The success made clear that if they could find common ground, working together had more impact than if they worked as separate parties.

The Presidential election and the success of the Connolly campaign is further evidence that working together with a common aim can have real impact, but also that there is also a knock-on benefit for those parties involved in and leading that alliance.

In our party polling figures, taken at the same time as our final Presidential election poll, two of the main parties backing Connolly have performed well in today’s poll. Suggesting that left alliance parties are benefiting from the success of the Connelly campaign.

The first of these is the Social Democrats, who were one of the earliest parties to nominate Connolly as their preferred Presidential candidate. They secure the highest vote share seen in RED C polls for the party since they were founded.

The Social Democrats had seen support fluctuate between 5 per cent and 6 per cent during most of 2023 and 2024 in the run up to the last election, occasionally hitting the highs of 7 per cent in a good poll. The party ultimately secured 5 per cent support when voters when to the polls for general election 2024, though this did translate to 5 additional seats in the Dáil.

Since that election though, their performance in the polls has improved again, with the party regularly securing 7 per cent of voter support during 2025. Today they see that support jump by another 2 per cent, leaving the Social Democrats securing a record high of 9 per cent of first preference votes.

It appears then that early support of Catherine Connolly’s campaign, which has been so successful, and having similar values to the candidate, appears to have galvanised support for the party. Which has also been boosted by the return of the well-regarded and energetic leader Holly Cairns in the past month.

Similarly, Sinn Fein are also shown to have benefited from association with a winner in this poll. The party came in late to add their support Connolly as their presidential candidate, and there was much written about the possible mistake they may have made in doing so, rather than fielding their own candidate.

However, it appears now to have been a positive decision. The party will surely benefit from being associated with what looks like it will be a strong victory for a candidate that they endorsed and campaigned for.

Particularly after their campaign performance in recent elections in 2024, both at local and general election level, have perhaps fallen below expectations.

Already the decision appears to have benefited their own party support among the electorate, with Sinn Fein regaining +2% more support this month, leaving them on 23% of the first preference vote, a level they haven’t been at for several months, and meaning they are once again well clear of the two main government parties.

While there might be some regret they didn’t field their own candidate, in a field that has been seen to be quite weak, their decision to align with the other left alliance parties, could potentially be more beneficial for them in the long term. It has set up ways of working and collaborating between left leaning parties that probably were not there in the past, and almost certainly has helped to form greater levels of trust between them.

You could, of course, argue that this collaboration doesn’t appear right now to have benefitted in terms of voter support the likes of Labour, The Greens or People Before Profit, all of whom also supported the Connolly Presidential campaign.

But for Labour and the Greens there was something of split within each of the parties, as to whether they should have backed Connolly in the first place, which may have dampened any benefits. While there are likely to be similar benefits behind the scenes for these smaller parties, in how they can work better together.

It is also the case that in total, the left alliance of Sinn Fein, Social Democrats, Labour, Greens and PBP Solidarity who all backed Connolly, secure 42 per cent of the first preference vote in today’s poll, some way clear of the pretty poor 36 per cent support garnered for the two main government parties.

Download the full chart deck with reuslts below

Business Post RED C Opinion Poll Report – October 2025